Everywhere
by Kunisaki
Summary: Because he’s everywhere to me. I don’t know who he is, and I haven’t seen him in real life. But... he's the only one that makes me believe... I’m not alone. – Sincerely Kaoru
1. Gone

**Everywhere**

_Author: Kunisaki_

Disclaimer: There is no way that I own anything from Ouran High School Host Club! It's out of the mind!

Author's note: Well, yeah... This is a new story with chapters in it, another one with the Hitachiin Twins.

Well, on with the first thing: _the Prologue! (Warning: it's very short!)_

Now, please enjoy the story! :D

* * *

- PROLOGUE –

- Gone -

* * *

The snow was falling down.

The cold winter wind had let the white snowflakes fall silently down on the snow-filled ground. No single blow in the air was there to interrupt the silence or to make any disruptions to the falling snow.

The sky was as white as the ground, and the coldness was freezing almost everything.

The white-covered building stood in the silence. The windows were covered by cold streams. The frost was placed on the sides of the huge glasses. Children were running around. They were playing at the courtyard while having fun in the peaceful snow.

They were laughing, running, playing. They were having fun together. All the kids played with each other, as they enjoyed the fun and laughed with joy.

The air was filled with their laughter. Their footprints was almost everywhere on the snow-ground. Some of the snow got thrown across the ground and towards children, who were playing a snowball fight with each other.

Their laughter repeated in a small boy's ears, as it crossed through his mind. A card was held in his small palms - a single playing card. He turned his eyes at the kids in front of him, while he was sitting on a bench all by himself. He watched them, as they ran with wide smiles on their faces. He could almost see that there was a joyful happiness upon them.

The boy gazed at them.

His face straight and his eyes empty.

_He never smiled._

The other children played together, but never with the boy. Never once had they did it, and they also didn't want to. They ignored him completely like he was nothing, like he was nobody - like he didn't exist at all. He was not real to them.

The small boy watched down, while looking down at his feet on the white snow.

"_There he is again."_ A small voice said in whisper.

"_Let's move away, okay?"_ another voice said quickly, moving away with the other and paced across the boy in a big circle. They moved away with a big space between him. The boy didn't move a single finger. He knew they would do such a thing.

He was too familiar with it.

Another pair of children's voices spoke, as they whispered to one another. Their eyes were on the lonely kid. He sat there and gazed on the ground underneath him. He frowned with his familiar sad face, but he never cried. Tears were threatening to fall down from his cheeks, but they would never fall.

He was lonely, because there was only him.

He didn't fit in this world.

He _never_ thought he would.

"_What's with him?"_

"_He's always sad."_

"_Ignore him, he's just a weirdo."_

He heard everything from them. Every single word from the kids. He lowered down his head - the card was still in his hands.

"_That boy's no fun."_

"_Always that strange,"_

"_He talks weird, I don't understand him."_

He closed his eyes, as he felt the snow landing on his hair - on his shoulders - on his small palms covered by the orange-coloured mittens. A green scarf that was too big for him was tied around his neck, hiding the small mouth of his.

He's empty inside. He was never as happy as the other kids in the orphanage.

"_I bet his mother didn't like him."_

"_Why would she, if he's that weird?"_

"_You're right, he's not normal."_

Maybe they were right. Maybe did his mother or father not like him. Maybe he was a disgrace for his blood and was never meant to be born. He knew he was left alone all from the start. He was left so early, and it seemed like he didn't really have a family from the beginning.

His existence was like of _a nobody._

He was not real to anyone.

He never knew his family. He didn't have a surname that was his. The kids hated him, as they called him a freak - a weirdo - a stranger.

They laughed, but their tones changed. Their laughter wasn't as innocent like before. He heard them clearly. Their laughter that repeated on his mind and overlapped his ears.

"_He's just a kid with no love."_

"_Nobody would love him."_

"_How can people love him?"_

"_Hahahahaha!"_

He was all alone in this world, because he didn't belong here. He was never meant to be liked.

They could hate him, insult him, despise him, but no one could love him.

_He knew that._

"_They can't love him, because he doesn't belong here!"_

"_He's __nobody__."_

The wind took place, stealing the card away from his small palms. He didn't move or watch up to see it flying away. He just let it go, just like he let his existence turn into nothing.

He was an empty shell that could move by it's own.

The card flew with the wind, as the blow had stolen his existence.

_Kaoru was __nobody__…_

_

* * *

_

So far, so good...

I hoped you liked the prologue, anyway. Mind telling me what you think of it?

:3

And Thanks for reading it! :D


	2. Allen

* * *

Here it begins. Chapter one.

There'll be some confusing sentence in this chapter, or I would think there would be. Anyway, before the story begins, I have some few notes to say. Like this is kind of a mystery or spiritual story with some few or more romance scene, I guess.

I will just warn you about the disadvantage of confusion in this story, and maybe it'll be difficult to understand the whole opinion. I'm the writer, so I'll have to take the blames. D: Just don't be to much critical, thanks.

Anyway, you ARE warned now, fellows. :D

* * *

-- CHAPTER ONE –

-- Allen --

* * *

"_Wait! I'm not fast enough!"_

_The small children ran together. There were four of them._

_They laughed together with joy, as they played around in the snow._

"_Wait for me!"_

_A boy at the same age yelled after them. He tried to run closer to them, but he wasn't fast enough._

_He reached out after one of their shoulders, but he failed._

_They were too far away._

"_Come on! Catch us!" they yelled back, while running away from him._

_He ran after the four children again, as he started to laugh as well._

_As they ran further with laughter, the boy suddenly slowed down on the running. The happy face he wore on before had disappeared._

_He gazed to the side and stared at the cause of his caught attention._

_There was a building, which was old-fashioned like an old British mansion. It snowed outside, and the little child moved slowly inside the house._

_There wasn't any trouble at coming inside. The door was unlocked._

_The other kids stopped up, as they turned around. They blinked with their eyes bewildered, "Where did he go?"_

_He took his winter jacket off, and hung it on one of the chairs._

_As he walked slowly in the silent hall, he stopped surprised up and turned towards the door to his left side._

_The door had nature arts carved on its wood. The boy tilted his head to the side, looking curiously at the eye-catching door._

_It was ajar..._

_He hesitated a bit. The little boy grasped on the knob with his small hands and pulled carefully._

_As he looked inside, there was not really anything inside the room, except for the huge mirror standing in the middle._

_It looked like a fantasy patterned mirror. The boy blinked at the enormous piece of glass, looking at it with his eyes carefully._

_He moved closer towards the mirror with curiosity. The boy was now standing in front of it. He looked his mirror image._

_He placed his hands on the cold glass. The same did the identical boy in front of him._

_The little boy stood there for a long time, while glancing around on the glass._

"_I could swear I heard someone." He closed his eyes with a sigh, moving the hands away from the mirror._

_But... his hands didn't move._

_The boy opened his eyes then. He stared at his hands, as they were intertwined with other small hands - surprisingly his mirror's hands._

_He looked up with amazed eyes, only to find his own eyes staring at him._

_No, it wasn't just "his" eyes. The boy in the glass gazed at him with the same expression he had before._

_The mirror image smiled then, opening his mouth:_

"_Surprised?" _

_

* * *

  
_

He opens his eyes widely. The male lifts himself up to a sitting position. The sweat glides down from his forehead and to the side of his cheek.

"…" He sighs heavily, while gazing at the ceiling above him.

_A dream again, _the words pass through his thoughts. He closes the eyes slightly.

_This time, it was more realistic then last._

He gazes tiredly at his hands. They're still shaking because of the dream.

He folds them in the attempt to stop his hand from shaking.

It's silent inside. Be to more precisely, it's silent always silent inside this house.

Kaoru scratches the back of his head tiredly. His hair has gotten messy from the sleep, and he can hear how the scratching crosses his ears. His heart is beating a little faster than its normal rhythm.

He blinks with his lidded eyes on the white blanket, which covers over him. The tick-tocks from the clock keeps repeating in the silent, and the clock itself stands beside his bed on the floor. It's second-hand is moving its rotation.

Dreams are really odd to him or his dreams are just odd. _It's just strange_, Kaoru thinks. Because when he's dreaming, he's not himself. He will become another person in those dreams. As in a different person. It sounds normal to people. Even that can happen to anyone.

_A dream and it was about '__him'__ again,_ the teen says in his mind.

Another dream about _him._

The red-haired couldn't help but sigh.

He turns his eyes towards the huge window on left side of the room. The sun light shines through the glass.

Kaoru suddenly remembers he has forgotten to draw the curtains last night. He gazes at the sun light on the wooded floor.

The redhead shakes his head slightly. He has to stop dreaming about this guy.

It seems to always be about that boy in the redhead's sleeping, and it kind of irritates him a bit.

His dreams have been confusing him, since he started to have them. He doesn't know why he's dreaming about this boy, and the boy just appears in his sleep, in his daydreaming, and always when he's off-minded. That would be when he's drifting away from reality.

And Kaoru doesn't know him.

And the weirdest part is that the boy looks _the same _as him.

No, he hasn't _changed_ his name in the dreams. He just becomes a person who looks a lot like him.

To be more correctly... the person looks _exactly_ like him.

_But it's funny sometimes_, the teen thinks. Even if the boy looks like him, they wouldn't be the same. Kaoru knows this boy, he becomes in his dreams, is not another one of himself. It's like the boy is his own person, has his own personality and way of thinking. Kaoru doesn't decide for himself of what he should do. He'll just react after the senses, because his will does not exist in these dreams.

_Kaoru and he are different from each other._

The red-haired shakes his head again. This time, fiercely.

There is no such thing as a dream-person with a personality.

_It's idiotic to think that._

And the guy is not even _real._

Suddenly, the sounds of a train can be heard. It's a bit far away, but he could hear the train.

Kaoru blinks with his eyes. He turns his head and looks through the window.

_The train's running? When did the stations decide to run the trains earlier in the morning…?_ He thinks confused inside his mind.

But then his eyes widen in realization, and he quickly grasps after his clock in a quick snatch.

His eyes stares wide open at the tick-tocking object.

"WHAT?! WHY THE HECK DID I SLEEP OVER FOR SO LONG?!"

Kaoru pulls the blanket off and moves towards the side in frustration, jumping off from the messy bed and leaves the clock behind.

He quickly snatches some clothes from the wardrobe, not having the time to decide what he should wear today. Once fully-dressed up, the teen runs down at the stairs hastily.

He sprints towards the front door and grabs after his coat and scarf, before he passes through the doorframe. Kaoru turns on the alarm and closes the door, locking it with his home-key. The red-haired runs towards the gate. He locks the gate with an old-fashioned key.

"Let me make it in time…!" Kaoru continues to run on the sidewalk, crossing over a small bride. The lake underneath is forming rings, whenever the autumn leaves would land slowly and neatly on the water. But as much as he would like to take a look, he just doesn't have time enough to do so. He ties the orange scarf around his neck, while pacing in a speedy tact.

As Kaoru keeps running, he heads closer to the town street. He crosses over a road and moves towards the other side.

For his eyes, it seems that the people are walking in a slow motion on the streets. The redhead passes them by, moving his way through the large crowd.

Sometimes, he would bump into some few of the people, and he would quickly apologize in a polite manner.

As he moves on, he's getting closer to his destination. However, the trains are about to leave the station.

The conductor looks at his pocket-watch in his palm, while Kaoru runs upwards on the long and wide stonestairs.

The man closes his pocket-watch, looking up to the train. "All on board!" he shouts, blowing into small a whistle. The last few people are quickly making their way on board.

The doors are closing, as the train starts to rotate the wheels. The damp from the train smokes out, and the engine-driver nods at the conductor.

"Wait!" a shout exclaims, causing the conductor to turn around and look after whoever has called. Kaoru runs up at the last few stairs. He waves with his hand in the air. The teen gasps after his breath. The conductor shakes his head slightly. He chuckles, as he sees the teen coming closer towards him.

"Better than later, Allen. Why coming first now, anyway?" The man curls his mouth upwards. Kaoru places his hands on the knees to keep himself up.

The teen gazes up, still trying to breathe normal.

"Sorry, but I kinda woke up later than planned." The redhead apologizes. All that running has taken the most of his energy. "Can I come on board, Raymond?" he asks politely, looking up to the man in front of him.

The conductor chuckles again, "Of course you can! Just get on, boy!"

"Thanks!" Kaoru says, lifting the hand up and jumps inside the train.

The conductor shakes his head once again. The driver starts to chuckle.

"The same old kid, eh?" the man who controls the train says, grinning at the gentleman before him.

Raymond nods in respond. He turns his head to look at the other way.

"He never changes."

* * *

**--Inside the train--**

As the train drives, Kaoru sits nearby a window. He gazes through the thick glass to see the world outside.

He sees trees passing his way. The leaves are getting blown by the wind.

The teen sighs tiredly. The train is almost filled up with people, except for the coach he's in.

There's nobody else than himself, and Kaoru finds it somehow funny. He always seems to be alone.

Truth is that his smile doesn't really appear on his face. It's rare for other people to see him curl the mouth of his upwards and smile to the world.

He knows he's different from the others. He's the weirdest little kid from the orphanage, and he's the oddest student in his class. Actually, in the whole school...

Kaoru knows that. But he doesn't really care anymore. If people do not like him… oh well, shrug it off. There is always something about him, which people would dislike. The reason is mostly because he's different.

The kids from the orphanage didn't like him. They didn't even play with him. They didn't talk with him and ignored him completely. But Kaoru has always been indifferent about that.

He never cries after all.

The kids thought he was cold, because he always had that straight face on.

- Because he was most likely silent.

- Because they've never seen him crying one single time.

There wasn't a tear to shred, not for Kaoru at least. It isn't because he's cold or having no emotions.

Every person has emotions, and yes... they can cry if they want to.

However, Kaoru has never wanted to let himself cry. He has done it once before. Every since then, he had stopped himself from doing it. He hasn't really found a reason to cry, since the first time he did.

But there is nothing, which could make his tears fall. Not the time before, not now, and there won't be in the nearer future.

The redhead closes his eyes slightly, while listening to the sound of the train running on the rails underneath.

So what if he's an orphan kid? He never met his real family. He doesn't even know if they are still alive.

But he doesn't really care about them... or to be correctly, he never did care.

If they didn't like him and left him all by himself, why should he try to find them?

When someone found him, they took care of him. Someone for the first time had accepted him. They gave him a name and raised him. They cared for him as if he was their real son.

The teen didn't have the name 'Kaoru' in the first place. When the adults found him… no. When they 'adopted' him, they asked what his name was. Somehow… he couldn't remember. And so then, they gave him the other name, which he has been called for all these years. Everyone referrers this name to him. They call him by that name and only that name. He found the name 'Kaoru' some years after. When he was sure it was his 'real' name, he kept it for himself. No one would actually want know it anyway. Why should he tell, when people doesn't really want to talk to him?

But that's the reason why people call him _'Allen'_, and not _'Kaoru'._ They only know him by that name.

Kaoru laughs inwardly. A sad smile appears on his lips. _What a twisted life… _he thinks in his thoughts. He looks through the window once again.

_It still surprises me, how I found out my real name…_

The train runs its way over a long bride. He can already see the city underneath.

The train stops. People are walking out of the craft. Kaoru stands up from his seat and steps towards the train's exit. The redhead takes a look over the station. The sun is shining brightly today. Life feels a bit better for him.

He jumps out of the craft. The engine-driver waves at him.

"See ya, Allen!" the man says to Kaoru. The redhead nods. He walks away, as he looks over his shoulder and waves back to the driver.

A whistle's been blown. The train continues the way to the next destination.

Kaoru turns the head forward again. He looks at the crowded street with the enormous among of people walking around.

He takes his steps down on the stairs.

The day seems to be quite nice, or that's what most people would think.

The store-keeper keeps typing on the keys, getting stressed by the impatient among of kids.

"Hurry up, grandpa!" a little boy exclaims, while having a grumpy frown on his face.

The elderly man smiles nervously, "Yes, of course!" he says and gives the surplus money back to the kid.

The old man sighs heavily, as he can sense how he's about to panic.

The doorbell rings, and a teen opens up the store's front door.

A boy, who's much elder than the kid, wearing an orange scarf, takes his steps inside the building. He curls his mouth a little bit upwards, while lifting his hand up in a greeting. "Morning, grandpa."

The store-keeper looks up. He smiles brightly at the teen. "Allen! Good to see you, my boy!"

Kaoru walks towards the elderly man he calls 'his grandfather'.

The kids look at him. For some reason, the small kids are beginning to jump up and down.

"Hurray! Allen's here!" they shout all glad and cheerfully.

Kaoru sweat drops a bit. He smiles a bit to them. He's glad that this town, this place, this city… is nothing like the orphanage.

"I see that you have a lot to do." The redhead says, turning towards his grandfather again.

The old man rubs on his nose, "Wouldn't you mind to help me here?"

The redhead just smiles at him and answers. "Of course."

* * *

**--Later at afternoon--**

"Gees, there were many today…"

After a morning with a full time of working, the two are sitting by one of the tables outside. They're finally having a break.

"It isn't easy to run a candy store, as it was before…" the grandfather says with a sigh, "Guess I'm getting too old for this."

Kaoru laughs quietly, "Naah, I think you're doing it fine, grandpa… You have run this shop for 25 years. That's plenty of time."

He takes a sip of his warm tea, then placing it down again. "Besides, it's not only a candy store. It has many things to run."

His grandfather's candy store is three different things. It's an ice-cream bar, a little café and of course a candy shop. You can buy many kinds of sweet at this place. Lots of people come here to have a drink, or buy something for the way home. It's called as a _'cozy place to relax'_.

The grandfather takes a sip from his own cup, before he looks up at Kaoru. "So, my boy... have they replied yet?"

Kaoru turns his eyes on the table, holding the cup of white tea between his hands. "No... Not really yet." He looks up to his grandfather, "Do you think they would accept me? Accept my work?"

The elder man places his hand on his chin, sitting in deep thoughts. "Gees, I don't know, Allen… but your designs need to tidy a bit up."

"W-what?" Kaoru responds with bewildered eyes. He blinks twice, "Grandpa, are you sur-…?"

The elderly man grins at him. He claps his grandson on his shoulder, "Of course I'm joking with you! Allen, you're doing a great job. Your mother would be very proud of you!"

The teen curls his mouth a bit, but it's a sad smile. "Yeah, she probably would…"

When the teen responds so quietly, the grandfather blinks a bit before sighing deeply. He knows that this is important for his grandson.

Since his daughter had adopted the boy, she had been taking care of him as if he was her real child. She and her husband had given Kaoru the name 'Allen'.

His daughter was a tailor and she loved her job. All these efforts she did. She wouldn't stop, even if she had to finish her work late at night. She was always cheerful, even when she had an illness. Her husband or Kaoru's 'father' worked as a jewel- and watchmaker. He was a good man and had many friends and admirers.

Sadly, the two of them couldn't be here any longer. The old man has always been concerned about what Kaoru feels. It must be very hard for him.

Kaoru has always been this silent towards those he meets. The old man knows the boy's real name, but he calls him Allen since the day he was found. He's glad to see Kaoru smiling and having the time of his life. Kaoru likes his 'parents', and he will do anything for them.

That is why this is important for him. He has waited since the day he decided to fulfill his mother's wishes.

"Well, since it can't be helped... Just keep on the good work, Allen." His grandfather says gladly. He stands up from his seat. "Just don't over-work yourself, okay? You'll get too much tired."

Kaoru nods his head, "Got that." He replies with a smile on his lips.

The elderly man turns around and walks inside the store. _Kids these days…_ he thinks while grinning.

As long as Kaoru is fine, there's nothing to be so concerned about.

* * *

"_It has come to this... that strange things are happening to me."_

_"Suddenly, I can hear whispers around me. I don't know what it is that creeps me out."_

"_It's not just now or some few days... but mostly in my entire life."_

"_I've just… never really mentioned it before until now."_

"_Weird things are happening to me... I don't know why."_

_"I don't think I should tell this to anyone. After all-…"_

"- There's _no one to believe me."_

"_But I never thought they would, anyway."_

"_So, I'll write on these papers, to keep everything intact."_

"_Maybe... just maybe... someone will believe me one day. But still… I'm not sure about that."_

"_Sincerely Hika-…" _

_

* * *

  
_

"Allen, wake up!"

Kaoru blinks his eyes tiredly. He feels like his head is spinning around.

He yawns out loudly, "What is it, grandpa?"

"Gees, you must have been tired all day. Did you sleep well last night?" the elderly man asks with concern, while his hand is on Kaoru's shoulder.

The said teen nods slightly, "I'm fine. Just a bit tired, that's all."

The old man sighs with closed eyes. "Look. The store will close soon, so you can take home and get some more sleep, alright?"

Kaoru nods again in understanding. He stands up from the cash desk. "Are you sure?" he asks, just to be sure.

The elderly man smiles. "Of course. Now go home and have a rest, my boy."

"Alright then." The redhead turns over to the dressing room, changing his clothes.

When he's finished with the changing, he walks towards the front door with his coat in one arm. "See ya, grandpa!"

The grandfather waves at him in respond. "Take care!"

The sunset's coming, and the teen turns around a corner of the street. Kaoru walks along the sidewalks, watching the sun going slowly down. The sun light is reflecting on the windows of the plenty amount of buildings. The streets are always so quiet at this time. There aren't many people walking on the alleys.

The redhead has gotten the permission to leave earlier. He thinks that it is fine, since his grandfather's told him to, and there aren't any customers left inside the shop. He has the time to buy some goods for dinner before taking off with the train and study peacefully at home.

He opens the door to the greengrocer's shop. A bell rings close by the door.

The shop assistant turns around. She sees the teen before her, which causes her to smile warmly.

"Nice to see you, Allen." She says friendly. Kaoru walks in and towards the desk.

"The same to you." He replies, closing the door behind him.

"What do you want to buy this time?" she asks, waiting patiently for him to answer.

Kaoru scratches the back of his head, wondering. "Erhm, I'm not really sure… could you pick up for me?"

The girl grins at him. This would usually happen, so she doesn't really mind it. "I knew you say that," she smiles in amusement. She turns around, bowing down to grab after a bag under the desk. She lifts it up and places it on the desk, "Now, here's something special. I've already putted some veggies for you. Just in case if you didn't know what to pick."

Kaoru blinks a bit, before a little smile appears on his expression. "You really know me that much."

"We are friends, right?" The assistant smiles back to him. She takes up a cabbage. Kaoru stares strangely at it. "This is a Hakusai, a Chinese cabbage. Oh, and trust me. It's really tasty and healthy for you."

Kaoru just keeps staring at it though. He hasn't seen that kind of vegetables before. _If she says so…_ he thinks. "I'll trust you on that."

"Good then. Oh, and here's some takenoko." The girl smiles again. She places back the vegetables into the bag. "There's also some shiso inside, just so you would know it."

Kaoru nods again, thanking her. "Thanks, how much?"

She grins at him once again, "It's okay, you don't have to. Just take it as in return for the last time you helped."

"Deal." The redhead replies back. He turns away and opens the door. "See ya next time, Haruhi."

The female called Haruhi waves to him. "See you."

As he walks towards the station, he passes a few stores by.

The huge windows reflect his mirror image, and Kaoru stops up to take a look on one of the glasses.

He looks at his mirror image for a moment. But then he shakes his head slightly.

_What am I thinking?_

The redhead continues on. He heads towards the station.

_Those dreams are really affecting me. I should really stop it._

But how? He isn't sure of how he can stop having these weird dreams. Besides, he can't be awake all the time.

He reaches towards the station and walks up at the stairs, which seems to be longer than before. Nah, it's just his imagination.

The huge clock in the middle of the city could be seen afar from the station. Kaoru watches carefully at the distant clock tower.

The large bells ring from the city's biggest church. The birds are flying into the sky.

He stands there for a moment, just watching the city before turning around and continuing on.

* * *

I guess that was it.

I hope it was good enough. My stories will always seem to be strange. Or maybe it's just me that is.

Well enough of that, I'll be leaving.


	3. A Letter

Author's note: Thanks for reading the story, I'm glad that you have an interest in it. :D

Still many mistakes... -sighs- Whatever can I do?

-Throws papers- Oh well! On with the story, already!

* * *

-- CHAPTER TWO --

-- A Letter --

* * *

"What?" Kaoru says, standing with blinking eyes.

"It's the best for you, Allen." The man in front of him replies, his hands folded together.

Kaoru watches down on the desk before him. He sees some papers lying on the wood-made furniture. He sighs silently. This 'meeting' with the inspector is quite different this time, unlike all the other times.

_So at last… they have made their decision._

"Please understand this." The man says as he closes his eyes. Kaoru stands still. He doesn't need to look at the elder man.

The redhead is not surprised about the resolution. It's so obvious to him. For years he has known that the day will come.

Not only has he known it, but the students and teachers also. Being against the whole among of students isn't easy, he knows that well enough.

Kaoru puts his hands into his pockets, as he places an expressionless face on.

"There have been many disturbances that have cause severe troubles here in our school, and a great among of them involves you." The man states and tries to sit properly on his armchair. The sun light shines through the huge window behind him, shadowing his face. "You may know why, young lad?"

That's right. Kaoru knows that. Since the day he started at this school, the kids have already despised him.

It's like he was at the orphanage again.

Oh how he dislikes that place, but as the time goes by, he doesn't care to do anything to make the children stop. It's hopeless to do so.

This school is actually worse than the orphanage. Here you get kicked on your sides and punched in the face. If you're a strange kid like Kaoru, then that's exactly what you'll deal with till the day you're kicked out of school. No one actually wants to help. They'll keep watching from the background. Sometimes, they would even enjoy the violence. And the huge guys, who are bigger than you, will run deeper into the fight, just because the crowd around you wants to see blood.

Kaoru ties his right hand inside the pocket. The bandage around it gets tighter.

He can feel how the ache begins to come back again, but his face remains as straight as always. A large plaster is placed on the side of his cheek. He has a serious scratch there. The blood didn't stop running out, when the nurses tried to clean the dirt of. The hospital's workers do wonder why Kaoru gets himself so much harmed. He comes most likely every day. But the red-haired shrugs his shoulder, finding a new way of excuses. After all, he's not the type, who's sneaking to the adults.

Even if he does tell, the adults won't have the urge the change the problem--at least not the teachers.

They don't even like him, because of his bad manners to them. They think that Kaoru believes he's smarter than them. The way he corrects the teachers' solution of the problems is really annoying them. That's also one reason why he gets so many detentions. However, he wouldn't really care about it. It happens all the time.

One of the teachers tried to prove him wrong, but he sat calmly by his table without making a twitch and held onto his answer.

How he made a fool of the man… and with a simple remark.

The adults hate when he's acting all intellectual towards them.

They all think of Kaoru like that, and it _is_ a part of the true. He is recommencing with his usual quick remarks, he is clever than the most of teachers, and the students who think they are greater fight against him. Well, like he does care about them. He does talk back, when he gets annoyed or threatened. But all their hating reputations about him, he's indifferent about that. As long as there is no one who will talk to him, he doesn't see why he should make a deal of it.

No one will believe him, anyway.

As they say, _he's a freak._

"The fights you have been involved into are ruining the peace between students."

The truth is that Kaoru isn't the one who's starting the fights, but that seems to be a lie in their eyes.

He never starts a struggle with the huge guys, and he doesn't really bring his force up to defend himself.

It's like he doesn't stand up for himself. There is no point of struggling with others, or he just can't see the sense of it.

The man looks up at him, he's lifting his eyebrow. "Do you have anything to say?"

Kaoru stares back at the elder man, his eyes empty and his face straight. "No."

"No?"

The redhead stands still, repeating. "No."

The school inspector sighs deeply. He hands the papers in front of Kaoru. "Take them and you may leave. You're dismissed here for the last time."

The teen take a look at the sheets, they are all signed with the inspector's hand writing. He takes them firmly and turns around to the door.

He walks out of the room, still remaining his calm expression.

He couldn't care less.

_It's quiet out here in the halls._ The redhead looks around the place for one last time.

As he walks, he turns his amber eyes towards the identical windows, which stands beside one another with a space between them.

_They're all boring to look at, no lifting colours painted on._

The walls are coloured white, and the floor is typically made with woods.

With identical windows, comes there also identical doors.

_I wouldn't miss this place either way…_

Kaoru watches through the glasses. He sees outside of these isolating walls. The sun's shining, as the sky is blue and clear from clouds.

The schoolyard will be soon filled with kids. But right now, it's the leaves that are filling the ground.

Kaoru keeps walking in the long halls.

His steps can be heard in the utter silence.

* * *

"So, that's their decision?"

Kaoru nods, his eyes at the sketchbook he's drawing on.

His grandfather takes a look at the papers, which the red-haired had brought with him from the school.

The elderly man sighs, his grey eyes gazing at his grandson. "And I see you had been in a fight again."

Kaoru shrugs his shoulder. The writing-instrument in his palm draws lines into the sheet. "It's nothing serious. Just the usual."

"Let me see." The plaster on the teen's cheek gets pulled carefully away. But once pulled off, the old man can't help but look the boy's cheek with blinking eyes.

He scratches the top of his head, "I don't get it."

Kaoru's cheek has no sore on. It's pale and smooth like Kaoru's other one.

"You're quick at healing as always."

The redhead touches his cheek a bit, but his eyes seem to have no interest in them. "Apparently…"

"When was it now you got that scratch?"

Kaoru blinks a bit, "Yesterday. Why?"

The grandfather looks him for a moment. Then he scratches his chin. "No special reason."

Though, it is unusual for the old man that Kaoru can heal at such speed. He guesses that his grandson doesn't even know why either.

"What was the reason you were in a struggle?"

"It's not that serious, grandpa." Kaoru replies, his eyes on the sketchbook again.

The old man shakes his head and stands up from the chair. The teen's hand presses harder on the paper. The pen could almost cut through it. The grandfather places his hand on Kaoru's shoulder, causing the redhead to stop drawing. He looks up at the elderly man.

His grandfather smiles to him. Even though his grandson's been kicked out of the school, he feels relived. He's glad that Kaoru isn't going to come back to that place again. After all these troubles, which hung on the boy until now, he couldn't be more at ease. But so again… now that he doesn't have a school to walk at, how should they find a new place he can fit in? They don't really have the time on their side. It's a really bad timing for them.

The next year is Kaoru's third year as a high school student.

The elder man isn't sure if any school will take a kid in, and let him walk there in his senior year.

The autumn is almost over, and the winter will come soon.

There may be a chance, but the probability will be low.

"Is something wrong?" Kaoru asks. His face is concerned. The elderly man claps on his shoulder, laughing. "Don't worry, of course not!"

"Is it about my education?"

The grandfather stops abruptly. He sighs again. The truth is that he's uneasy.

If Kaoru starts on a new school, will he get into troubles again? He wonders… Maybe it will get worse?

But as he has the knowledge about the boy, he knows why his grandson didn't find a new place to learn earlier.

He's a determined fellow. He keeps coming, even if he gets threatened with violence. He really doesn't care if people hates him… which is quite sad.

The old man gives him a smile, "We'll find a way to make it, Allen."

Kaoru blinks with his eyes, "You're not upset?"

His grandfather chuckles, placing his hand on top of the red-haired's head.

"Why? I'm relieved."

The teen gives a faint smile. The drawing on his sketchbook shows a clock his long gone father had designed.

But it's only half done.

* * *

_The sun was shining brightly on that day._

_The boy smiled largely into the sky, watching the clouds drifting away._

_He sat on the green grass, and his hands could feel how the wind blew as he lifted them into the air._

_The kids in the park were playing with kites, laughing together._

_The boy watched how the kites were lifted up by the wind._

_He moved his hand towards where he saw them. A grin was on his face._

_His hand kept following the kites, until there was one of them that caught his eyes. It was not far away. He could see the colours of it._

_An orange colored line crossed over the white kite, and its long tail was blue. He watched it with amazed eyes. He told himself that he liked that one._

_The boy stood up on his feet, his hand lifted up._

_The kite's shadow was nearby him, and he pretended that he held the string, moving his hand's shadow closer to the string on the ground._

_But then suddenly, the wind became harsh. It blew so harshly that it caused all the kites to lose control._

_They landed on the grass, and the children ran quickly over to their own ones. But the kite he liked had landed on a tree and was torn apart._

_The string was snapped, and three kids were running towards the huge tree._

_The boy stood and watched them. They tried to get the kite down again._

_His eyes were caught again by something moving on the ground._

_It looked like a shadow._

_The boy blinked with his eyes in confusion._

_It looked like a shadow of a kite._

_But… didn't all the kites fall down?_

_All the kites had fallen down from the sky. His eyes followed the shadow-string. He wondered who could still hold a kite up in the air. As he watched, his eyes widened._

_The string leaded to his hand._

_Or to be more precisely… the shadow of it._

_His shadow held the shadow of the kite, and it was dancing around on the ground. _

* * *

Kaoru scratches the back of his head, as he makes out a loud yawn. He rubs his face, while blinking a bit with his tired eyes.

"Guess I must have fallen asleep while designing the dresses…" the teen sits properly up on his chair. He feels something on his back. "Huh?"

He blinks confused, "A blanket?"

_Who could have placed it…?_ He shrugs the thought off.

Kaoru turns his eyes towards the desk he's sitting by. The papers are messed together. He sighs tiredly, grabbing after the sheets. He tidies them up and places them inside his large briefcase for his design-sketches.

All he remembers from yesterday is that he was working on the designs again. He's inside his mother's study. Or… it was her study.

There are tons of sketches inside this room. Some of them are hanging on the walls. The clothes he has been sewing studiously are tidily folded and placed inside a large wardrobe. He turns his eyes towards an unfinished dress. It's not completed yet. The redhead gazes at it for a short moment. The sketch to the dress he's been working on is missing a piece. He can't finish the dress without the second part of the design.

So he lets the dress stand there, until he finds the missing part.

Kaoru stands up from his chair, taking the blanket with him.

He carefully steps over the boxes on the floor. The teen sighs to himself. He should really clean up this messy room.

As he gets closer to the door, he pulls at the handle and gets outside.

The redhead closes the door behind him. He turns towards the kitchen, walking tiredly and passes by the door. As he's about to prepare some breakfast, his eyes catches a paper bag standing next to the cooker. He blinks a bit. It looks like his grandfather has bought him something.

"Let's see…" Kaoru says, while taking the bag in front of him.

He takes a look inside and grabs after one of the merchandises.

He watches it, as it is in his hand. "An egg." He smiles a bit, "Well, why not? I can make tamagoyaki to breakfast."

He takes the rest of the eggs up. There are four in all. Kaoru opens the cupboard, looking inside of it.

"Now where did I place the rice…?" A white plastic bag lies there, and the red-haired grabs it. "Great, there's still enough."

Then he takes out a bowl, pouring down the rice into it. The water tap turns on, as the water pours on the rice.

Kaoru washes the rice then and changes the water.

He continues the process until the water becomes almost clean, and then he drains the bowl with rice.

"Alright. Then I'll have to wait for the rice in 30 minutes." He places the bowl aside and takes then the eggs.

Kaoru beats the eggs into another bowl and adds sugar into it. He blinks a bit, "Are there still some dashi soup?"

He opens the cupboard to the spices. But as he looks, there isn't any dashi soup left.

He moves towards the bag, taking out a dashi powder container. He sighs, "Guess I must use this."

Kaoru turn the heat on the cooker, and place a pot on.

Some water gets poured in, and he adds the powder. It's already boiling, and Kaoru looks bewildered at the pot.

"That's weird… Usually, it takes more time before the water starts boiling."

He actually wants it to go faster, but he knows how long it will take. Things go a bit faster by time… or for him. He shrugs it off. There's no reason to keep thinking about it.

The heat gets turned low, and he pours the soup into the bowl of eggs. Then he mixes the mixture well and takes out a square-formed pan. He turns the heat on medium.

Kaoru grabs after the bowl of rice then and place the rice into the rice cooker he has standing.

The teen oils the square-formed pan, feeling the heat from the cooker. That made him to dry the sweat off from his forehead. The mixture pours on the hot pan.

Kaoru moves the mixture around until it is spread on the surface. Then when the egg is half done, he moves the pan backwards and forwards.

He shoves it forwards with a last swing, and the egg flips around, landing on the other side.

A little time after, and the breakfast is served.

* * *

While Kaoru sits in the living room, done with his breakfast, he leafs through a book.

The text is handwritten. The redhead skims over the words. He reads up a line.

"_- Hikaru… A boy, whom I become in my dreams. I don't know him and yet I do. I know that I haven't met him before. But how come I feel like I've known this person? It's strange… It's a strange sensation. Like… perhaps there's a connection to him somewhere. But… That's just going too far. He's just a part of my mind. He should only exist in my dreams. -"_

He's reading from a journal, _his journal_.

This book has been his since 10 years now.

He got it when he was 8 years old, and most of the stuff in it, is about _'him'._

"_-I know that become him when I'm sleeping. It's happen a lot time before… And because of that, the name Hikaru has been really familiar to me, like I have this name. Like it is my own name. But, really… that's just odd to think like that. Even though I already am weird…-"_

Kaoru sighs heavily. This is too much confusing, and it will haunt him till the rest of his life.

_The name Hikaru…?_ Yeah, sure. It's been really familiar to him, but he already does have another name, which he's used to.

The teen shakes his head. He doesn't need a third one. But regardless of saying, the boy in his dreams has become a part of his life.

It's just weird to Kaoru, because _'he'_ does not exist.

"I really should give this up," The teen places his hand in front of his face. "Maybe life would get a bit easier…"

When he turns his eyes at the grandfather clock, he sits quietly blinks a bit.

"Is it really that time?" Kaoru says surprised. He stands up from the coach. "I better go before it gets late." He leaves the living room and walks towards the halls.

Then he grabs after his jacket and puts it on. He takes his scarf around his neck.

The door opens, and the red-haired walks out of the house. The he locks the door. Before Kaoru passes through the gate, he takes his bicycle with him.

The sun is still on the sky, and the leaves drift with the cold wind. Kaoru shivers a bit. it's getting colder and colder.

After he locks the gate, he jumps on his bicycle and rides along the road.

The place he's going to isn't far away. He could make it by 3 minutes.

Kaoru comes nearer towards a building. It's a store for fabrics. This was his mother's store. He stops in front of it, placing the bike near the building.

The teen takes out his keys from his jacket pocket, putting the key to the store's front door inside the keyhole.

It locks up, and he pushes the door forwards, stepping inside.

The lights get turned on and inside the store is a mess. Kaoru sighs. _Maybe I should clean up?_

He moves towards the stockroom. There are tons of different fabrics in there.

The redhead looks around, as he walks around the place. "Where is that cloth now?" He says, searching after a specific fabric. He needs it to a new design he's starting to sew.

He smiles when he finds it. Kaoru pulls out the fabric from the heap. He can feel how heavy it is.

* * *

_- "Hello, Hikaru? It's me."_

"_You probably know who it is on the phone already, ha ha."_

"_I just called you because… well, I don't know. It's just..."_

_"I think there is something you don't tell me."_

"_I would like to know what's been bothering you for the most of time, you're acting kinda weird."_

"_I-it's not an offence! I'm just worried about you."_

"_Just call me if there is something you wanna talk about, okay?"_

"Well then… _See ya!" –_

* * *

As the redhead comes closer to his house, he jumps off from his bike and walks towards the gate.

He blinks a bit and turns the eyes at the mailbox.

He stands still for a moment.

The teen pulls out the key to the box from his pocket, placing the key and turns it around.

He opens the mailbox.

"A letter." He says lowly, his hand gets it out, and he looks at the white envelope.

His amber eyes blink a bit on handwriting on the envelop.

Kaoru opens it and pulls out the paper.

...

He smiles.

* * *

"_- Turn it inside out so I can see _

_The part of you that's drifting over me _

_And when I wake you're, you're never there _

_And when I sleep you're, you're everywhere_

_You're everywhere…-"_

_-- _

A groan can be heard, and the sound of music plays out loudly, breaking the silence.

"_Oh boy, he's still sleeping…"_ A voice groans. It sighs in annoyance.

The said teenager lies on the huge bed. He snores softly, and it doesn't look like he's gonna wake up soon.

"_Will someone get him up?!"_ the voice shouts, getting crazy by the loud music.

"Oh, but he looks peaceful." Another voice says.

"But he must wake up, you know he has to." the third one says afterwards.

--

"_- 'Cause you're everywhere to me_

_And when I close my eyes it's you I see_

_You're everything I know_

_That's makes me believe_

_I'm not alone…-"_

_-- _

"_Gary, turn yourself off!"_ The annoyed voice says, but the radio plays further. _"Gary…"_ the voice says dangerous.

"Nah, I don't wanna." The radio replies. "I kinda like this song." If radios could dance, it will do it.

"Now dear, don't get so angry." The second voice says. "You're overreacting."

A twitch and the voice responds back, _"Amy… you're a freaking lamp. What do you know about it?!"_

The teen in bed rolls himself around, and the music still plays loudly. How he still can be sleeping, is quite a mystery.

"_Mike, wake him up, will ya?" _the voice asks, getting easily tired of this.

"Of course." The alarm clock states and prepares himself properly.

An even louder sound rings through the entire room, and the teen gets a shock. He jumps up from the bed and lands hardly on the floor.

"At last, the young master is awake." The clock says with a sigh.

"Ow…" The teen sits himself right up on the floor, running his hand through his hair. "Okay, I'm awake now!"

"_It's about time!"_ The voice states. The teen turn his head toward where he can hear it, lifting an eyebrow.

"What?" He says tiredly, rubbing the place, where his right eye is. "I can hear you."

"Ah! Sorry…!" The radio turns the volume down, playing a bit quieter.

"Dear, are you awake?!" The voice comes from down at the stairs, and the boy blinks his eyes, trying to focus.

"Yeah, mom!" he shouts back.

"Did you fall off your bed again?!" his mother asks again.

"What? No, of course not! I did not fall-…" he turn the eyes downward, and sees he's sitting on the floor. "- off…" he says lowly, scratching the back of his head.

"Uhm, it was nothing! Don't worry!" he shouts again, while he gets himself up to stand.

"Now _that was lame…"_ the voice insults. The teen turns annoyed eyes towards it.

"Would you shut up for a second, so I can change my clothes?" he snaps irritated, grabbing after the blanket and the pillow off the floor.

He places them back on the bed. He gets his clothes changed while listening to the song playing.

--

"_- 'Cause you're everywhere to me_

_And when I catch my breath_

_It's you I breathe_

_You're everything I know_

_That makes me believe_

_I'm not alone…-"_

_-- _

"There. All set now." The teen says and turns towards the mirror. He looks at his mirror image, smiling.

"Do you remember which day it is today?" the lamp asks gladly, and the boy turns the head towards it.

He blinks a bit, "Eh, no Amy, why do you ask? Is there something special that's gonna happen?"

"You know! Today is the day your mother takes you to her office!"

The teen places a finger on his left hands. "Now… when you say it," He smiles again. "I wonder what's gonna happen."

"_You can stand here and never find out, or get yourself down at the stairs and ask the mistress." _the voice replies.

The teen turns the look at the mirror again. His mirror image stands in a different pose from what he's standing like.

The mirror image's eyes are half-lifted up.

The person behind the glass places his hands inside the pockets, _"You do realize your time is wasting, right?"_

"No worries." The boy smiles back and walks towards the door. He opens the door and moves out of his bedroom.

"See ya!" he says to the mirror, and closes after himself.

The mirror image sighs deeply, feeling slightly annoyed. _"And he's the one I'm gonna hang with for the rest of my life..."_

The young teen grins a bit. He lifts his index finger, as he points at one of the dusters, which the maids are using to clean up. The selected duster flies away from one of the maids and cleans a beautiful vase by itself. The maid gets surprised. "Oh!" she sees the teen behind her. The said teen smiles and passes her. "It's just you, young master…!" She breathes in relief.

"Sorry about that." He chuckles a bit.

"Good morning, everyone." He greets all the others maids.

The maids watch away from the rags and wave back at the teen. "Good morning, young master." They greet him with smiles.

As he walks down at the stairs. He can see his mother standing by the end of it. She gives a delicate smile to him. "Good morning, sunshine."

"Good morning." The teen smiles back. He paces closer to his mother. "But… please don't call me 'sunshine'." He states firmly, but not harsh.

His mother blinks at him, "Why not?"

He scratches his cheek a bit. "It just… doesn't fit me at all."

The lady of the house chuckles a bit, patting the top of his head. "If you say so, Hikaru."

"Yeah… but you don't mean it."

"Why else?"

The two of them walk inside the dinner room. It's huge and there is a long table in the middle. The chairs stand neatly on their places, and breakfast is already served to eat. The teen, who is called Hikaru, takes a seat nearby his mother. The servants shove their chairs politely towards the table.

"Thanks." Hikaru says with a smile, and the servant, who's behind him, bows in respond.

"So, mom… What are we going to do at your work?" the teen asks curiously. His mother glances at him.

"Well…" She leafs through the newspaper she holding. The mistress lays the papers down to the side. "Well, we have been taking about it yesterday, didn't we?"

Hikaru stares blankly at her. He blinks twice and the lady sighs slightly. "As the heir to my company, you have to learn about how to organize a collection. The collection will be shown under a festive arrangement for the well-to-do peoples who will be estimating your designs."

Hikaru scratches the back of his head, sweat dropping. "Right, I forgot that."

"I wouldn't be surprised…" the mother says in amusement. "Besides, you're also going to have a partner for this project."

"Is it one of the workers?" the boy asks, taking a bite from his plate.

His mother smiles, "No."

Hikaru blinks a bit confused at her. _If it isn't one from her company, then who?_

"This person will soon work together with you and has some skills as a tailor." She replies gladly, but the teen sighs slightly.

_Am I going to work with some older person I don't know?_ He shakes his head, "If you say so, mom."

As they finish their breakfast, they get straight towards the limo, which is standing in front of the front door. The lady and her son get inside the car, and the limo drives the usual roundabout. The huge gate opens, and they are on their way on the road.

"So, what this person like? Is it a male or female?" Hikaru asks. He wants to know how his partner is like, before he meets them.

"It's a male." The lady responds, and the teen sits a bit in wonders. "How is he like?"

His mother shrugs her shoulder, "I don't know yet. I haven't seen him before. But he seems like a polite person."

"Then how do you know he's the right one to choose? There's plenty of others, right?"

"I was recommended by one of my acquaintances."

"Okay…? What's his name then?"

The mother smiles a bit, giving some papers to her son.

Hikaru blinks at his mother, before he starts to read the papers.

* * *

Here are some meanings about these Japanese word from chapter one and two:

**Hakusai **- as Haruhi told, is a chinese cabbage

**Takenoko** - Bamboo shoot

**Shiso** - Japanese basil

**Tamagoyaki** - Rolled eggs, often use in bentos.

**Dashi** - an often used ingredient in Japanese recipes, if you like to cook Japanese food, then you would properly know what it is.

See you in the next chapter. :D


	4. Suddenly Here

Author's note:

THE NEXT CHAPTER! :D

Enjoy! X3

* * *

-- CHAPTER THREE --

-- Suddenly Here --

* * *

The letter, he has gotten for a moment ago, is held in his palm.

He keeps running, while people on the street are staring weirdly at the redhead.

Kaoru sweat-drops.

_I hope grandpa's okay at the shop. I totally forgot the time…!_

"Youngsters nowadays… They're such in a hurry all the time." An elderly woman says when she saw the teen crossing over the road.

He gets closer to the tramway.

People are standing patiently, waiting for the tramcar to pass by.

The tram is getting closer.

Kaoru glances on his watch. _The tram's about to get here_…

He speeds up. Kaoru passes by the people, causing them to watch him with bewildered eyes. He apologizes hastily when he bumps into them. Although he doesn't have to rush it, he'll be worried about his grandfather being alone at the shop. At this hour it would usually get pretty busy, and he worries about his grandfather's health. Stress isn't good for an aged man as him.

While Kaoru is being in his own thoughts, a guy feels the push from him.

"W-whoa!" The guy turns around to see who it was. "Watch it, will you?" he says with blinking eyes.

Kaoru sweat-drops, bowing his head down in apology. "Pardon." He replies back. He notices that the guy has blond hair.

The guy widens his eyes. "Hey… Aren't you-…?" He stares at the redhead, but Kaoru has already left the place.

"Wait!" the blond exclaims and tries to follow him.

A lady screams. "Watch out!"

The blond sees the redhead running towards the tramway, right the minute where the streetcar would pass by.

He panicks. "O-ooi! Don't do it-!!"

The tramcar passes by.

Kaoru had jumped across the tramway and landed in a frog-looking position.

People watch him with flabbergasted expressions, their eyes gazing in shock.

The blond stares in astonishment at the redhead. "What the-…?"

The red-haired teen starts to run again.

He runs through the amount of folks, ignoring the shouts of shock and surprise behind him.

The cause of him being in this hurry is because he was earlier too occupied of the letter. Simply he forgot the time over a letter from his friend, Haruhi. He couldn't imagine that she would help him to find a school he could go to. Also, the reason he thinks like this is because he couldn't imagine anyone help him at all. But if he knows Haruhi well, she could always find a way to get through problems. She has often told him that he could count on her.

But still, Kaoru wonders how she will do it, but somehow he knows that she will. He's grateful to her, but he can't help wondering why she is _that friendly_ to him, when there has been no one before. But to look aside from the wondering, he's glad that he has a friend like her.

The redhead gets closer to the candy store. He grabs the door handle and shoves the door open.

"Sorry, grandpa! I was at the old cloth-shop and about to make my way over-… here?"

The elderly man turns around when he hears the voice of his grandson. He smiles brightly at the teen standing at the doorway.

He lifts up his hand, replying. "Hello there, Allen!"

Kaoru sweat-drops. _So… many…kids._

He tries to make it through the large among of children. His grandfather blinks a bit, staring at the teen's hand. He sees the piece of paper in his grasp. "What is the letter for?" He asks, pointing at the envelope.

"Oh, this?" The redhead replies, lifting the letter up. "It's just a letter I've gotten from Haruhi."

"Aha…" the elderly man grins. _His smile seems a bit different… _The redhead thinks.

"What news does she have to you?" The old man asks with curiosity, smiling at his grandson.

Kaoru scratches the side of his cheek, "Well, it's about-…"

"You got a letter from Haruhi!?" a little girl exclaims, pulling at the redhead's wrist.

Kaoru didn't get the chance to speak further, and the children around him are getting curious.

"Are you two together?" another kid asks, smiling innocently at him.

Kaoru stares blankly at the kid. He blinks a bit confused. "Eh… what?"

A third one grabs after his arm, causing the redhead to turn his head towards her.

"I think Haru-chan is sweet, she could be a good girlfriend." The girl says with a bright smile. Her eyes are shining with expectation.

"W-what?" Kaoru stares at the little girl with blond hair, his eyes widening.

_Does every kid know Haruhi?_

He stutters out bewildered. "Wait, that's not the point-…"

"Do you like Fujioka from the greengrocery shop?" A boy asks, staring with disbelieved eyes. "Good choice!" he exclaims while posing a strike.

"…" the teen sweat-drops. He shakes his head fiercely. "No wait, listen! I'm just friends with Haruhi, that's all-…"

"But she's the only one who likes you, right?" the boy points the fact out.

The redhead's grandfather looks up, due to the kid's words. His face seems a bit strained, as he looks at his grandson.

Kaoru sighs with his eyes closed. He turns the look on the children. "What I'm trying to say is-… s-stop pulling on me!"

The kids are pulling on him from every direction, and that causes him lose his balance on the floor.

He widens his eyes and falls hardly on his back.

The kids kneel around him quickly.

"Great." He says in a mumble, twitching his face.

He rises himself right up, and a little girl moves her face right in front of him.

"We're sorry! Are you okay, Allen? Did it hurt?"

Kaoru scratches his head and smiles a bit to her. "Don't worry about it. It doesn't hurt anywhere."

A kid grabs on his arm, cause the redhead to look at her. "But… aren't you and Haruhi dating then? You two seem to be a lot together."

Kaoru blinks twice at the little girl. He scratches the side of his cheek.

"No, we're not dating with each other. We're just hanging out." He pats the top of the girl's head.

_Though, it sounds like the same…_ The redhead thinks while sweat-dropping.

Kaoru has never been dating someone, not even once. He doesn't even fit with the other teens in his age. It's difficult to have a relationship for him, especially when people don't like him. But it's not like he's even interested to have an affair with a person. He doesn't really care. Truth is that he's friends with Haruhi, but he has never thought that they will make their friendship more than what it already is like.

"You don't have to be shy." A little boy with brownish hair says. "If you like her, you should ask her out."

Kaoru runs his hand through his reddish hair. He sighs in irritation.

"How many times do I have to tell that I and Haruhi are just friends? Would you please stop?"

"NO!" the kids shout, laughing together with wide smiles on their faces.

Kaoru sighs again. A faint smile appears on his lips, but it's unnoticed.

He turns his face towards his grandfather, "Grandpa, could you get them away from me?"

The old man grins in amusement. The kids seem to like making fun with Kaoru – or was it make fun **of** him?

"Alright kids," The elder man says. He lifts Kaoru off the floor. "I'll borrow Allen for a moment. He will be right back again. So be patient." He shoves Kaoru a bit towards the backdoor. The teen blinks a bit, wondering why his grandfather sudden pushes him.

"Awww!" the exclamation comes from the kids.

"But we want him now!" a little girl says in disappointment.

"Yeah, Allen knows which candy we want!" another one says, and they all agree with each other. Their faces pout.

Kaoru laughs quietly, and then turns towards the kids. "Don't worry, I'll be back soon." The kids nod in a slow movement.

Kaoru follows his grandfather through the backdoor, and closes it behind him.

"What's the matter, grandpa?" he asks, waiting for the elderly man to speak.

"You'll be surprised…!" the man chuckles. Kaoru blinks at him, quite getting curious.

The old man picks up a piece of paper--no a letter. The redhead stares at it.

"Here you go, my boy." And the teen takes it, looking at it with careful eyes.

His eyes widen, as he reads the lines on the envelope. He rips the top off and takes out the paper.

He skims over the letter, and an overwhelmed look appears on his face.

He puts his hand on the side of his head, running through his red hair.

"I can't believe it, they have-..! They have accepted me!"

A bright smile slowly appears on Kaoru's features. He hugs his grandfather, smiling with joy.

The elderly man grins at his grandson. "Congratulations, Allen!" he claps him on the back.

Kaoru lets go of his grandfather, as he looks up to the ceiling. He just couldn't believe this.

"You know what this means?" the grandfather says, smiling at the teen.

Kaoru turns towards the elder man. "I can live up to mother's dreams…"

_This is it…_

This is what he has waited for.

What he has worked so hard for: every single piece of designing, his mother's work and his great effort of making the designs and sewing the clothes. Now he can start to fulfill the one person's dream, he can fulfill her hopes.

Kaoru continues to read the letter. The words pass through his mind.

He blinks at the piece of paper:

"_- 'and so as planned, you have been placed to work by planning our brand-new collection, which will be shown in an arrangement for this year's summer. We'll look forward to our cooperation with each other. Signed – Hitachiin Yuzuha.'…"_

Kaoru's face becomes pale. He stares in amazement at the two last words.

"Hitachiin… Yuzuha…"

He's going to work with the famous fashion designer and the president of the Hitachiin brand, Hitachiin Yuzuha herself.

Kaoru can't believe it. _It must be a dream._

But the lines say it all clearly, and the signature is a piece of evidence, a proof.

"Kami-sama," he whispers out, running the hand down on his face.

"I must be dreaming."

The elderly grins.

This could be a good start of new opportunities for the kid.

* * *

"Stand like this."

Hikaru watches with half-lifted eyes, getting a bit bored by just keeping an eye on the photographer's work.

He yawns soundlessly, sitting on one of the chairs.

They're inside the model department. The teen turns his gaze at some other things.

Like for example: a spotlight hanging above the large stage, or maybe the dust, which covers the corners of the enormous room.

He doesn't feel like looking at the models.

He could feel their gazes. It's like they're watching him, smiling towards his direction.

Hikaru rolls his eyes, not getting interested like the other guys, whom he knows, would. Some of them even have the dare to wink an eye, causing Hikaru turned his head to the other side. He tries to ignore them with an expressionless face, but he still looks annoyed.

The camera clicks, catching pictures of the models.

"That's great. Now, turn the look to the left."

Mrs. Hitachiin sits beside her son, watching the whole concept. Her elbow is placed on the armrest, her hand underneath her chin.

Hikaru glances at her from the corner of his eyes, as she has her focus and attention directly at the stage.

He sighs in boredom, getting tired of changing a new sitting-position for each minute there goes.

Abruptly, the redhead blinks some few times when he hears a whisper.

He glances at his mother again.

But she hasn't made a movement yet, just sitting still on her seat.

The whisper increases its sound, and he can't find out which way he could hear it.

He glances from every side, getting confused.

"You're sitting on me, your dimwit!" the voice almost yells, and Hikaru flips the looks behind him.

He blinks again, rising up from his seat. But, there isn't anything on the chair.

The teen hits his forehead, realizing the point.

The voice is from the chair.

"I thought you were deaf for a second ago."

"Shut up… You know you can't talk to me." The teen whispers back, bowing down in front of the chair.

He turns the look at the others inside this room. They seem to be busy with their work, so there isn't any concern about that.

His mother is in fact occupied, and it doesn't appear that she has heard anything weird.

He turns back towards the chair again, watching with half-lifted eyes.

"Don't talk to me. You know the rules, right?"

"Sure, I do." the chair responds, "But I almost couldn't breathe! You're too heavy!"

Hikaru narrows the eyes, "How can you breathe, when you're a chair made of wood and not with lungs?"

"Hikaru, what are you doing?"

The teen widens his eyes when he hears his mother's voice, causing him to jerk over his leg and fall on his bottom.

Mrs. Hitachiin blinks confused, as Hikaru rises up on his feet again, just a little too fast.

The teen grins at her, like as if there isn't anything going on.

"What is it, mom?" he asks, jumping right on the chair. He swears that he could hear a groan from it.

The mother sighs with closed eyes, "Be gentle with the chair, he has a bad leg."

Hikaru blinks at her, bowing down to look at the chair's four legs. "He has? Which one?"

She shakes her head, "Hikaru, you're being silly again."

The teen rises up again. He turns the eyes downwards at floor.

Something is bothering him, and it's usual the same matter.

"Kaasan… Why are these things happening to me?" Mrs. Hitachiin glances at him, writing some notes down on her notebook.

She claps the book shut and turns fully towards her son, giving him her whole attention.

Mrs. Hitachiin don't really know how to answer him, she knows there is something weird happening to her son. It was difficult to accept it at first, because strange sounds are coming whenever Hikaru is around. These voices were starting to speak to him when he was four, and he sits often in front of the large mirror inside his bedroom, just talking and laughing.

Hikaru isn't mentally ill, those voices and whispers aren't just inside of his head.

She hears them too.

It happens only to Hikaru. If you want to hear them too, you have to be nearby him. He speaks with those voices, or actually with every object that exist in this world. She doesn't know how. He just can from the beginning.

She wonders about what this could mean, but the answer doesn't seem to appear.

She couldn't find the cause of it.

At least she doesn't think there is something wrong with him. She just couldn't accept the fact that her dear son might be insane. He doesn't seem to be ill by mental illness. He's behaving like an average teenager. He goes to school and has plenty of friends, and there isn't anything strange happening when he's with people… which could cause a big disaster, there is.

She shakes her head.

_No, that would be terrifying._

Mrs. Hitachiin looks at her son, smiling sympathetically.

She loves him, so she doesn't mind if odd things happen around them.

Also, she finds it funny to have company with other than humans.

Hikaru turns his eyes upwards, looking at her with uncertainty. "I don't get it."

The mother places her hands on his shoulder.

"You don't have to get concerned about it, okay?" She smiles, while pulling him into an embrace.

The teen nods slowly. Mrs. Hitachiin sighs quietly. She knows this isn't just a small matter.

They need some time to figure it out.

But even so, it doesn't mind her.

"Is it me there's wrong with?" Hikaru asks, as his mother still holds him in a hug.

The mother moves them away from each other a bit. She gazes at him with concerned eyes. "No, Hikaru… Of course not-…"

A melody rings out from somewhere, interrupting the lady's sentence.

She quickly let go of the teen, while her hands fumble with the handbag.

"Oh great, the space in this purse is so small, and yet I can't find my cell phone!"

A hand gets placed on hers, and she gazes up.

Hikaru smiles at her, fishing up his own cell phone. "It's for me, kaasan."

He places it to his ear and answers. "Hikaru here."

The teen makes grimaces, while Mrs. Hitachiin blinks curiously at him. "What do you mean?" he asks confused, scratching the back of his head.

"No, I'm at my mother's work. How can I be walking at the streets when I have an appointment?"

Hikaru narrows his eyes. He lifts up his eyebrow. "Jumping over a tramway? That can't be me… What?"

"What's the matter?" Mrs. Hitachiin asks, but her son doesn't hear her. He's getting confused by the person on the other side of the line.

He sighs before replying, "Yes. I didn't get out to the city this afternoon. Besides, how could I when I said I would be working early in the morning? You forgot that...? Great… Yeah, see ya."

Hikaru closes the cell phone, putting it back inside of his pocket.

"A friend… from school." He answers before his mother would ask the coming question.

She smiles then.

"A friend… okay then."

The photographer lowers down the camera. He's done with the first part of the day.

"Alright, ladies! Break time!" Mrs. Hitachiin shouts, as the sound of clapping hands can be heard through the entire department.

Hikaru rises up from his seat, grabbing after his mother's arm.

"Wait," he states, as she turns around to face him.

"When am I exactly starting this project? We have just gone through some few plans and small meetings."

She blinks at the teen for a while, then answers with a grin.

"Tomorrow of course."

* * *

**-- The next day --**

"It's here."

Kaoru lowers down the papers, as he stands in front of the huge building.

The teen turns the look up, but he still can't see the top of the building from where he's standing.

He gulps quietly.

The nervousness from the night before overcomes him again.

He walks forward in a quiet motion, heading towards the entrance.

The doorkeepers open up for him to enter, and he passes by the huge doors.

Though, they give him strange looks, they don't speak to him, just standing at attention.

Kaoru gazes over the entire place. He wonders how they could build rooms this huge. It's unbelievable to think that such a place exist here.

It's incredible… All the designs of the building…

The architects must have had a hard time by planning the building's appearance.

He can feel how uptight he is, as it aches inside his throat. The redhead lowers down his cap, hiding his amber eyes.

Maybe this was a bad idea?

Maybe he isn't ready yet?

It's rare that he gets that much nervous, and he gets to be right now!?

A bad timing…

"Can I help you?" a polite voice asks.

He turns around and finds a lady standing with a smile on her face, as she holds a briefcase between her hands.

Kaoru scratches on his cheek, smiling nervously. "Yes, thanks."

He lies down his rucksack on the marble floor, pulling out some papers. He hands them towards her.

"I have an appointment with Hitachiin Yuzuha, about the cooperation of the new collection. Can you help me with finding the meeting room she's in?"

The lady skims over the words.

She smiles to him and hands the papers back. "Sure, just follow me."

The day before was a nightmare for Kaoru.

He couldn't find out what he was supposed to do, and his grandfather tried to calm him down.

The teen lets his eyelids fall half over his eyes.

It was easier said than done...

He knows he's prepared, but somehow he doesn't think so.

'_Calm down, Kaoru.'_ He thinks, taking a deep breath. _'You know what to do…'_

_

* * *

_

Somewhere else inside the building, Mrs. Hitachiin walks back and forth, getting impatient.

It worries her that her son hasn't shown up yet, and she keeps throwing glances at her watch.

"Where is he?" the president of the Hitachiin brand sighs out, running a hand through her hair.

"He couldn't still be sleeping!? I should call him at least."

"Excuse me, Mrs. Hitachiin?"

She turns around, looking at the person by the door.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Your son's limo has been seen nearby the entrance, he'll get in here soon enough."

The red-haired lady feels relieved when she hears the words.

"Good, I'll wait until then."

She sits down on the armchair, placing her elbows on the desk.

She gazes tiredly towards the ceiling above, thinking about her son.

_He always seems to get me concerned, that troublemaker._

* * *

As Kaoru follows the lady in front of him, he looks at the things, which he passes.

It's not that he's over-anxious or throws himself towards every new object he sees. He just happen to get curious when he sees something interesting. There are many things which catch his eyes, and he can't help wondering what they are for.

"Where exactly is the meeting room?" he asks, as he turns the look back at the lady.

The redhead blinks a few times.

He blinks with his eyes bewildered. "Eh?"

Apparently, he hasn't notice that the lady is gone until now.

It seems like he has walked by his own. That's what he thinks when he comes to a conclusion.

And now he's alone at someplace in a huge building and with no sort of assistance on locations.

He's lost... What now?

A map could be helpful…

"There you are!"

"Huh?" Kaoru turns his head over his shoulder, and the person who has called him paces quickly towards the teen.

"We have been waiting for you, Hitachiin."

"What?" He doesn't get the chance to talk further, as he gets dragged on his arm.

The elder person speaks further, not turning the look at the teen.

"Before you meet up to your appointment, there is some few things you have to go through."

Kaoru blinks bewildered.

_Didn't she just say __**Hitachiin**__?_

"Now, what are you doing with the boy?" A male voice comes from the left side, causing the two to stop up and watch the man who is nearing them.

"Getting him over to the sign's location, what else?" the woman replies, still holding Kaoru on his arm.

The man shakes his head slightly.

"May I excuse myself, young miss… But I have been waiting for the youngster since I came here in this morning."

"Pardon me, Mr. Nishimura… But this is an order I have to finish, so will you please-…"

"Nonsense! We don't have to get in such a hurry."

Kaoru stands between the two workers.

His eyes can't help but keep blinking in confusing. "Eh, sorry… but can I-…"

"Where have you been? We have been searching after you, and you just stand here!"

_Oh boy…_ The teen thinks with a sigh.

Another one comes rushing towards them, and he grabs on the redhead's free arm.

Well, not-so-free anymore…

"Mrs. Hitachiin waits impatiently for you, get yourself up to her immediately!"

_This is getting too much…_

And he never thought that it could get worse.

But so again…

"Hitachiin-kun, we have a deal to solve between us."

"Eh?" he blinks blankly, when he sees another person running towards him.

He jerks up in fright when he watches how the female rushing over to the crowd.

She seems to have gotten out of the bed on the wrong side.

Something has made her mad, and obviously it seems to be Kaoru's fault.

_But I haven't done anything to her. I don't know her at all!_

The lady grabs after his collar, thrusting him into the wall behind.

That hurts him rather much, even though he doesn't let the ache show on his face.

_What the heck…? _He thinks, but gulps when he sees her eyes flashing with anger at him.

"Did you think you could run away from it?" she smirks wickedly, tightening the grasp.

"Don't take me too lightly."

Kaoru lifts up his hand in front of him, trying to solve this. "Wait, you don't understand. I'm not who you think-…"

"Cut the act already!" she interrupts, getting slightly annoyed.

The redhead sweat-drops. _Why does this have to happen on this special day?_

"What is happening down here?"

The whole crowd turns their eyes towards the source of it.

Kaoru takes the opportunity to break him free from the grasp and runs away in a speed.

_This is getting too odd! _He thinks, while he keeps running away.

He doesn't even know why they would get him, or what they exactly would do with him.

"Don't think you can get away!"

_Kami-sama… has this an end?_ He thinks in frustration.

The entire crowd follows right after him, determined to catch the redhead. "Anyway, I gotta get out of here!"

And to his relief, he makes it towards the entrance.

Now he could get out of this weirdness.

"OOOWW!"

Or so he thought… It doesn't end like he has wanted.

It just _happens_ that he gets bumped into a person and falls down on the carpet-covered floor.

This time, he shows the ache on his face.

"Huh?" he blinks confused, as he can feel some air close to his neck, which causes him to shiver a bit.

The air was actually a breath.

He rises himself a bit up, but what he sees shock him a lot.

A guy is underneath him.

The male scratches the place of his head where he has hit the floor.

He blinks his eyes open, and to his surprise… Kaoru above on him.

"Um… Hi?" he states, watching as in asking what's wrong.

Kaoru stares with widen eyes, his face becoming paler.

_This guy… He looks a lot like-…_

The guy underneath blinks bewildered at him, and Kaoru gets a weird feeling inside.

_Maybe I should leave now…_ he thinks while twitching his face.

As Kaoru tries to get up, the male grabs his upper-arms to pull him back.

The male looks at him with lidded eyes. "Since when did you get out of the mirror?"

"Huh?"

"Now we got you-… What?" The people, who have been chasing after Kaoru, stop abruptly up.

They stare at the two males with bewildered looks. "Hitachiin-kun?"

Kaoru watches over his shoulder, blinking in confusion.

He gazes back at the teen underneath. "Hi-…Hitachiin?"

The guy rises his back up from the floor, even though it is difficult with a person lying on him.

He sighs. "I haven't told you before? You don't have to call me Hitachiin all the time."

_If he's a Hitachiin, would he then…?_

Kaoru thinks inside, he's shocked and can't comprehend it all.

_What is happening…?!_

"You can't be serious about letting me wait all the day!"

A shouts runs by, and everybody turns their eyes towards the lady on the stairs.

She walks down, her hands place on her hips. "I guess I should get my son by my own then?"

Mrs. Hitachiin stops up, blinking with her eyes. "Eh? There are two of them?"

The workers turns their eyes back at the two teen.

The one they have been running after is lying on the one, who just came inside of the building for a moment ago.

The president sighs as well. She watches with half-lifted eyes.

"You're late, Hikaru."

"!" Kaoru blanks at once.

And nonetheless, this name makes him completely shocked.

He throws his gaze back on the teen.

_Is he for real!?_

Hikaru titles his head to the side.

"I guess you're not him, since you're reacting like that. Who are you?"

"I…"

How is this supposed to be normal, when the guy in front of him has the possibility to be the one who's in his dreams?

No, that couldn't be true.

It would be too much a coincidence.

Kaoru stares. Then he opens his mouth.

"I need some air."

He flings himself away from the teen, trying to run towards the exit.

But he should absolutely cross his legs over and fall again on the floor.

When he's nervous, his clumsy side shows.

Oh, how he hates that.

A hand pulls on him, lifting him up to a sitting-position.

He turns his eyes at the teen called Hikaru, getting surprised when he sees his face right in front of him.

"You okay?" Hikaru asks, looking with a bit worried eyes, and still a bit with amusement.

"You must be Allen, correct?" Mrs. Hitachiin points out, smiling gladly.

Kaoru blinks a bit, watching up to the lady.

"Yes, that's me." He responds uncertainly, not knowing what to do.

The president of the Hitachiin brand smiles warmly.

"Well then… Welcome to our workplace, Yuki-kun."

* * *

Reviews, please?

:3


	5. Turned Out Well?

**Author's note:** Kunisaki here, with some few things to say:

Please let me freak out for a moment: …….OMG! WTHECK? Yes! I'm done at last!

'Cough!' – Okay then… Well, at least I'm done until now. Sorry for making you wait for this one, I didn't have the time to finish this chapter earlier, but I tried to. Anyway, I sure hope it's well done, or will you tell me what you think of it :D

Enjoy reading it!

* * *

-- C h a p t e r F o u r --

-- T u r n e d O u t We l l ? --

* * *

_Do you know the big wardrobe?_

_The one at the end of the halls?_

_It's big and made of wood_

_But it's at the end of the halls._

_--_

_The halls are scary; they're dark at the end_

_And the wardrobe stands over there alone._

_It's a scary place, it's a dark place_

_With no lights or candles to shine it up_

_--_

_No one goes there, no one will do that_

_They're afraid of doing that_

_They don't want to get eaten._

_--_

_The wardrobe is big; many children can be inside_

_But they don't want to be in there_

'_Cause they don't want to be eaten._

_--_

_It's a lonely wardrobe_

_Believe what I say_

'_Cause it told me - it told me_

'_Dear child,'_

'_I want a friend.'_

_--_

_It's the big wardrobe_

_The one at the end of the halls_

_It's dark over there_

_But not scary anymore._

_--_

_The wardrobe is lonely_

_It stands over there alone_

_He only wants a friend._

_--_

_But as I tell this_

_I get sad and feel bad_

_And that's because,_

_No one will believe me._

* * *

_'What is this?'_

The thought rushes through his mind, while he stares with his gaping mouth – _'Is this a sick joke?'_

He gets a confused look from the other teen, and Kaoru can just stare with a blank face.

There's a guy right in front of him, and he has to look a lot like him; as in the same appearance! And you know what? He's name is freaking Hikaru! That's right! H-I-K-A-R-U, **Hikaru! **What a coincidence! Who would have thought that? Just how could people have your face other than yourself and your mirror? Such things as doublegangers don't exist in real life. It's just a superstitious rumour. And no, his dreams doesn't count in, damn it!

That's right; no one has the same face as yourself - but how come this guy does really look like him?

_And why __the heck doesn't he freak out!?_

Kaoru does not believe, he doesn't want to – there isn't any way for dreams to become a reality, it's too much spiritually! That kind of stuff is idiotic!

'_But his name is Hikaru!?'_

"Hello?" A hand waves right in Kaoru's face, causing the redhead to jump away - Hikaru raises his eyebrow, tilting his head a little. Kaoru starts to blink at him – he still doesn't know why the guy can be so calm when he shouldn't.

"Here, let me help you up." The other teen's hand reaches out, as Kaoru takes a second to watch it. He lifts up his own, about to take Hikaru's. But when 'about' is told, that means something gets in the way. His mother doesn't bother to respond; instead she pulls on Hikaru's collar and drags him away, before Kaoru could even reach one finger towards the other teen. Hikaru finds himself taken off-guarded, and he starts to shout in annoyance – "Hey! What are you doing!"

"Hanako, please help our guest Yuki-kun." The mother ignores her son, by calling after one of the workers close by.

Hanako, who was the first to approach Kaoru and drag on him, watches up – "Y-yes, Mrs. Hitachiin-san!" she stumbles over her words, and quickly helps the redhead on his feet.

"Kowai…" - the rest of the workers whisper to themselves. "Such a scary face…"

As they come closer to the place where Mrs. Hitachiin finds comfortable to talk, she places her hands on Hikaru's shoulders, watching with serious eyes.

"Hikaru," she says firmly, her eyes locking him into the gaze.

Hikaru feels her tension, and he gulps a little; he has no idea what she's thinking, probably something he has done.

He moves his eyes towards the side, responding with a small voice. "Yeah, kaasan?"

"What is this all about?"

- And Hikaru lets out a yell; obviously trying to make his mother to not hit him. He waves his hands in front of him, defending his face.

"It's wasn't my fault! I swear I didn't splash orange paint on the carpet! The one in your bedroom!"

The mother twitches by that, she almost shouts at him.

"I'm talking about your double ganger over there, and what's about my carpet?"

"I'm sorry mom! I didn't mean to-! ... Eh?" Confused eyes replace terrified eyes, while he stares back at lady - completely taken back of what she has said. "Nani?"

"We'll talk about the carpet later." She deadpans, while the teen laughs nervously, and scratches through his hair - he shouldn't have taken that topic after all, now he's gonna get into trouble. "Well, I hope this isn't a joke of yours, because it's really freaking me out." Mrs. Hitachiin says out and gazes at her son, still being serious towards him. Hikaru still doesn't get the point of what she is saying to him, while he keeps blinking in confusion. "What do you mean?" he asks dumbly, and his mother twitches once again in annoyance.

"Watch!" she says, grabbing his head and turns it towards where the other redhead was sitting.

"Do you see?" Mrs. Hitachiin whispers, while Hikaru starts to believe she is really serious.

He can feel how tense she is, and that's because it hurts when she presses her hands too tightly on his face.

"Yeah, I see! I see!" he groans out, trying to get out of her grasp.

But it's kinda difficult for him to break free.

"If you and your so-called mirror make a sick joke, then I'm not laughing." And by that, he watches up at her, staring with a bewildered face.

Without even answering, he watches back towards the teen, tilting the head to the side.

"Yeah, he does look like me…" he admits - his face twitching nervously.

This is obviously awkward, seeing a guy with your face on is definitely awkward, _and it is not even a mask._

That guy has stolen his face, his appearance! Isn't that a crime - to steal another person's looks? Such braveness of having the dare to steal his face… Hikaru feels urge to throw the other redhead into a dark room, throwing sharp light on and make him hell to speak out. He wants to know why he had copy his face, and how the heck he did it. The thief has properly an idiotic reason to change his face, just to look as another person; and he just _have_ to look like Hikaru.

But then again - though it is disturbing for Hikaru - when he looks closer at the thief, just long enough; he does actually find him-…

"Kinda cute…"

An eyebrow gets raised; the lady does not really have the understanding of what her son said that for.

But as she watches him, Hikaru notices her look at him by the second, and he shakes his head rapidly; he starts to cough a lot, as if something got stuck in his throat.

Hikaru knits his eyebrows together; _Cute?__ Why did he even say that? Why did he think that anyway?_

He tries to bend the awkwardness around him, placing a calm expression on.

"I'm not sure that my mirror image can walk freely outside of the mirror, and I don't think it's him either." Mrs. Hitachiin keeps her face straight, but she does feel a bit relieved. She turns the look at the other redhead, watching the scene of the workers. They're trying to apologize to him, and he keeps accepting them. She doesn't know why, but she's more relaxed when she heard those words from Hikaru. Though - it is strange.

"How can you be sure?" she asks - just to be on the safe side.

"Well…"

Actually, Hikaru doesn't know if he's sure of what he's saying; but somehow, it feels more as the true.

If his mirror image really can walk into their world, then Hikaru will gain a lot of trouble - mostly from that shameless idiot of a mirror.

"I'm positive," the red-haired says convincing, placing the hand under his chin. "Or, he _could_ be really good at acting."

The two Hitachiins throws their eyes at one another;

His mother clears her throat before stating to her son - "That sentence didn't help at all…"

"Hai," Hikaru says, while nodding with his head. "I totally agree…"

"Ehm, excuse me?"

That causes Mrs. Hitachiin and Hikaru to look up and forget completely, what they were talking about before; the rest turned their faces at Kaoru as well. The two haven't notice how the red-haired watches them, and they surely stare blankly at him.

Kaoru wonders why they look at him with such weird faces – he continues on his question:

"Sorry, but… Is there by any chances that I've come to the wrong place?"

* * *

"_He's crazy, isn't he?"_

"_Why does he always talk with himself?"_

"_It's because he's lonely, right?"_

"_He told us, he can talk with the wardrobe."_

"_You mean the scary one at the end of the corridors?"_

"_Yeah, that one… it's kinda scary."_

"_You'll fall for that? He's obviously trying to get attention from us."_

"_Things can't talk… he's just stupid."_

"_What a loser…"_

"_It's because he's lonely…"_

* * *

Kaoru sits on one of the most comfortable chair in the entire building, sitting in Mrs. Hitachiin's office. He can feel how everyone inside the room just stares at him, smiling with too much bright smiles. Their faces seem to be stiff, while they're trying to hold on the mask. He sweat-drops, feeling the awkward silence passes through. Kaoru watches down the large table in front of him; it's indeed awkward, and it doesn't help with all the staring at him. But what he finds weird is that Yuzuha Hitachiin smiles normally towards him, as if there isn't anything strange.

The teen called Hikaru is also acting normal, just smiling when he shouldn't.

_How can he just smile!_ He should have freaked out - he and Kaoru have the same face, the same hair colour, the same eyes and those other entire things they could compare with each other.

Wait… Why is he sure that they look completely like each other? The thought just came as normal, like he knew the fact already.

Kaoru glances at Hikaru, and the other redhead seems to have noticed it. He blinks and then smiles – Kaoru stares dumbly at him;

_'How could he be so damn calm!?'_

"We're sorry about the mistakes, Yuki-kun." The president apologizes, while sitting on her armchair.

"Eh, it's okay." Kaoru replies back, he doesn't know how many times he has said that – he lost the count.

But that doesn't concern him, as he wonders in his mind; _'What's with the '__Yuki-kun__?'_

"Are you sure that-…?"

"Yeah, I'm sure that I didn't come out from a mirror." He deadpans.

"But, what about-…?"

"No, I haven't done any surgery. I was born with this look." And he deadpans again

Mrs. Hitachiin smiles then, "Great… Just to be sure, are you by any chances related to-…?"

"Mrs. Hitachiin, I can't see how this question is going to help us to come further with the topic." The red-haired interrupts, getting a bit irritated by the repeat of the same questions, but he answers with a polite tone in his voice. "I can't answer it… I'm an orphan."

"I see… I understand that you get annoyed of these questions." Mrs. Hitachiin states thoughtfully - she turns towards the workers, and begins to wave with her hand; "Sorry to bother you guys, everything's fine after all."

Then the huge among of people begins walk outside of the room, each one nodding right after another, as they pass through the doors.

Kaoru sweat-drops, not quite understanding this – are they for real? She didn't get offended when he answered rather rudely (but still politely), and she smiles then to him? Kaoru has to admit; he has never met people like that before - those he met weren't friendly towards him. They would insult him, kick him, punch him, and steal his things from him – stuffs like that. The red-haired is more used to the violence than the kindly, only his grandfather and Haruhi are nice to him.

He has to say this, but for his first impression of them; he finds them rather…... strange.

They used the whole morning to contact his grandfather's store, looking through his papers and his social insurance card. Though he does understand their worry – it's odd to see a doubleganger so suddenly, and it's not even normal. But still, it's not so necessary to check his DNA by taking one of his hair, his saliva or what else could have some information. Of course they didn't do that; they're not professors or doctors. But was it necessary to have so many people to confirm one single piece of information?

Anyway, letting go of the topic, Kaoru still don't want to believe in the existence of doublegangers.

Mrs. Hitachiin clears her throat, turning the head at the red-haired with an unworried smile.

"So Allen-kun, you properly know what is going to happen, and why you are exactly here, right?"

Kaoru blinks at her, "Um, yes I do Mrs. Hita-…"

"Yuzuha." She interrupts, her voice calm and politely.

"You can call me by my name; we _are_ going to work with each other for a long while."

Kaoru sits quiet a second after, and nods in understanding.

Even though the awkward tension is still flying above them.

The president stands up from her armchair, walking patiently towards the redhead, "As you know; we need some new refreshing ideas to the new collection, and I had an eye on your designs for a quite time. As they got my interest, I knew that I didn't have to search anymore."

'_Don't people say that kind of stuff a lot?'_ Kaoru thinks in his mind, right after Yuzuha's sentence.

She places a hand on Kaoru's shoulder, her face close beside him. He watches her eyes; they're turning towards the place she left, and the teen's own ones follow up. He doesn't really know what to do else, and his eyes are now looking at Mrs. Hitachiin's son, Hikaru.

Kaoru blinks, staring blankly at the teen that's standing next to the armchair.

"And then to your job; you are going to work side by side with my son, the heir of the Hitachiin brand." She states and smiles warmly, clapping the hand hardly on his back. Kaoru doesn't say anything, only making grimaces by the slaps. "So, you two are going to cooperate with one another, and Hikaru; as you already know, you can help Yuki-kun under the course."

"Of course, Mrs. president." the son replies with a grin.

"I guess we haven't encountered properly," Hikaru walks towards the redhead, "Shall we start over?"

He smiles and reaches out his hand. "I'm Hikaru, nice to meet you."

"Allen, the same to you." Kaoru takes his palm, and they shake hands.

"What a pretty hand you got there."

"... Nanda?" the redhead blinks at Hikaru, stopping the hand-shaking.

Hikaru smiles again, letting go of his palm. "It's nothing." He replies afterwards, and Kaoru just watches at him, knitting the eyebrows together.

'_What the heck was that?'_

* * *

"So, Allen… How was your first time being over there?"

"Hm?" Kaoru watches up from the desk, while taking out the change from the cash register.

He turns the looks down again, and sighs tiredly. "Nothing special, I guess." He said indifferent, handing over the change to the costumer.

The costumer bows down with a smile on her face, and then leaves with her hand waving.

"You're sure of that?" the elderly man asks again, waving back to the leaving girl.

The redhead keep his eyes on the cash register's buttons; he makes a grunt as a reply.

The grandfather scratches underneath his chin, his eyes shows how deep he is in his thoughts. "So, nothing unusual happened? Is that right?"

The redhead stands quiet for a minute, before turning away from the desk.

Then he walks towards the storeroom and grabs after door handle.

"Don't you need a break? It's midday." The elder calls after him, which causes Kaoru to stop up and turns the head over his shoulder, the teen shakes the head slightly.

"Nope, I'm fine." and then he opens the door and walk through the doorframe.

A chuckle comes from the old man, while he shakes with his head. _'That kid…'_ he thinks in his mind - he places back the broom in a corner, close to a closet filled with jars of different kinds of delirious sweets; all of them looks tasty and has nice colours - some with mixed colours, twisting in harmony with each other.

The grandfather watches over them, his palm holding his chin; the eyes behind the glasses search after one specified glass jar, and suddenly he smiles widely. "There you are," he says, referring to a jar with blue and light green striped sweets. He takes it down carefully from the third shelf, and places it on the desk. He smiles, while opening the lid – some few of the sweets get taken up, and placed on an orange handkerchief.

Inside the storeroom; Kaoru's picking up the huge boxes from his left side, and places them on the shelf in front of him.

When the last box is placed; the red-haired moves down the ladder while sighing.

As he watches up, he finds his grandfather standing at the doorframe.

"That's a heavy sigh," the elderly man points out, walking over to his grandson.

"Sounds to me that something_ is_ bothering you after all."

"It's nothing to get concerned about." Kaoru responds, sitting down on an old wood-made chair nearby. He scratches through his hair, while his lidded eyes watch down on the floor. The grandfather sighs deeply, and then pulls out an identical chair; he places the chair next to the teen, and sits down on it.

"Let me show you something, Allen." He states with a smile on his features, lifting up the left hand in front of the redhead. Kaoru blinks twice at the palm; it's holding an orange-coloured hanky, and there's mix-coloured sweets lying safely in the middle – sure to not fall down from the hand. "You see, I made this kind of favour in the morning, before I opened the store today." He moves the hand closer to Kaoru, "Wanna try one?"

Kaoru looks at them for a second or two; then he takes a piece from the soft handkerchief, and places it inside his mouth.

His eyes widens in amazement, as he finds the taste rather delirious.

"It's great." He says lowly, and the grandfather grins happily.

"Is that true?"

The red-haired nods, while the elderly man moves his hand away, laying the hanky on a table nearby.

"Well," he lets out a heavy sigh, "I don't quite sell them."

"Why not?" the teen asks while being taken aback; he's giving his grandfather a puzzled look.

"Maybe because I don't want to… who knows, maybe it isn't a good idea."

"What do you mean?" Kaoru doesn't get it; why wouldn't he sell them? They're not bad at all, they're really tasty.

"Of course it's a good idea; they'll surely be popular among the costumers."

The old man shrugs on his shoulder, "Nah, I guess I wouldn't like to try things out." But that doesn't stop Kaoru from talking further.

"You should, grandpa. You wouldn't know unless you-…" he stops before the last word could even get spoken; he scratches on his cheek, as he's starting to get the point.

"Unless you try?" the elder man ends, smiling widely at the redhead.

"Doesn't it sound like something we have heard a lot?"

"Yeah… it does." The teen admits, as he lowers his head; his grandfather places a hand on his shoulder, and chuckles slightly.

"You wouldn't know unless you try to open up yourself for others… Hiding your feelings won't help you at all."

He stands up from the chair, as he inhales the air, and then exhales it. "Beside Allen," he grins when he sees Kaoru turning the head up.

The red-haired blinks at him, as he waits for the elderly man to continue.

"Your friend is waiting outside."

"Eh?" Kaoru blinks bewildered, and he stands up from the chair – he walks out of the stockroom, surprised to see who it was.

Through the windows, he sees the back of a certain brown-haired girl.

"Haruhi?" he says in astonish, as he opens the door – the bells rings when he does that.

The girl turns around; she smiles when she sees him, "Hey Allen."

Kaoru turns the head to right and left; no one was nearby the store, or walking on the street. "What are you doing here?" he asks the female, while having his eyebrows knitted together.

"I got early free today; I just wanted to come by and see you in working clothes." She teases him a bit, and Kaoru watches her with a strange look.

He sighs with closed eyes – "What do you_ really_ want?"

"Spend time with you, I guess?" she answers, or it sounds more as a question.

"Haruhi, I don't have time to this." he deadpans, walking inside the shop again. His arm gets tugged on, as Haruhi stops him from leaving the doorframe.

"Why not Allen?" She asks again, "We hardly talk like this without having the thoughts of work behind our heads."

Kaoru runs a hand through his reddish hair, "Haruhi, listen… the point is-…"

"Fujioka-san, nice to see you again!" a voice drowns the redhead's talking, and the two teens turn their looks inside the candy store. Kaoru's grandfather walks over to them, he smiles to the brown-haired girl. "Last time I saw you, it was when you and Allen were only small kids."

"It's nice to see you too, Yuki-ojiisan." Haruhi responds with a smile, and bows in respect. "It has been a while."

"Most certainly." The elderly man says with a nod, and then turns towards Kaoru. "Allen, I need you to do something for me, can you do it?"

The teen blinks at him, replying back - "Well, I guess."

"Good, good! Here, take this." and a box folded inside a blue scarf gets shoved into his hands, while he stares at it with those confused looks he usual gets on. "Now go on!" the old man grins, waving at the teen. Kaoru doesn't get him, and asks him, "Ehm, what's it for?"

"You don't know?" and the red-haired shakes his head. "Well, it's your o-bento box of cause."

"Huh?" a blank stare on Kaoru face; _since when did he take a bento box with him? _His grandfather just smiles at them, and turns inside to store again. He calls, out before the door closes - "Make sure to get him back at two o'clock, Fujioka-san!"

Haruhi laughs then, while Kaoru twitches his face in annoyance.

The girl turns her brown eyes at him, she smiles warmly – "Well, you can just stay here, if you don't want to."

"Doesn't matter now…" Kaoru says under his breath, as he sighs in defeat.

Grandfather strikes again, and it goes on Kaoru.

"Let's go, Haruhi." And the redhead turns to the right, walking his way from the candy store.

"Hai!" Haruhi responds, and follows after him.

As they walk, the streets seem to be empty without people walking around. Kaoru likes this time of the day, always so quiet and peaceful at twelve o'clock to half past one. The cool breeze feels nice and refreshing, and rain wouldn't seem to come today. "Nice weather, don't you think?" Haruhi states quietly, while watching the leaves dancing with the breeze. Kaoru glances at the girl - she has a soft smile on, and the aura around her is peaceful.

"Yeah, I do." He replies afterwards, looking forwards again.

They stops up, when they get near to a long and wide bridge; the river flows underneath, as the sun light reflects on the water. The red-haired teen sits himself on the stone-edge, legs swinging above the clear water. Haruhi does also the same, sitting next to him. They begin to start eating their lunches, while watching the clouds change forms seconds after seconds. "Just like the old times." the girl smiles into the air, while Kaoru takes a glance at her again.

"You sound like an old lady right there." And he takes a bite from the onigiri in his palm, chewing and swallowing the piece.

Haruhi's peaceful face turns into an annoyed twitching one, as she hears those rude words from her left side. "And you're still the insulting brat from the summer vacation, the one from 10 years ago."

"You can count!?" Kaoru states with a surprised face, obliviously fake - "Hurray for that!"

The brown head rolls her eyes; she snatches the onigiri in Kaoru's hand, before he could take another bite.

"Hey, give it back!" Kaoru complains, while trying to get his food back – Haruhi holds it in her other hand, and stretches it to the right; much longer away from the guy.

"Oi, Haruhi!"

"Nani, Allen?" Haruhi grins at him, and that makes him more annoyed – "you're gonna regret it."

"Try me." She dares him, which causes him to sighs heavily – the redhead starts to pull on her, dragging her closer to him; he tickles her, while she yelps and laughs uncontrollably. "S-stop!" she manages to say between her laughter - but Kaoru's being indifferent and continues on. Tears run out from the corner of her eyes, and she laughs and screams, until she can't breathe anymore. "S-stop… I can't bre-breathe…!"

"Then beg for mercy." He says with a straight face, holding her up as for not letting her fall into the water.

"Okay, I give up…! I beg you to stop!" she shouts exhausted, while laying herself on the ground.

Kaoru sits down next to her, which causes Haruhi to look up to him. "Want your onigiri?" she asks tiresome, but the redhead shakes his head slightly.

"It got dirty when you dropped it. Now I don't want it."

"Troublesome as always." She sighs, sitting right up again, "But, I'm glad that you don't change."

Kaoru watches her for a minute, while the brown-haired smiles warmly. "Really…?" he replies with a raised eyebrow.

"Anyway! I got a place for you in my school; they accepted my request for you to transfer there. You can start already on next week." Haruhi states gladly; that surprises Kaoru a lot, as he blinks in amazement. "Haruhi," he says, while the female tilts the head to the side. "Yes?" She asks smiling, and the redhead scratches though his hair.

"How did you do it?"

Haruhi grins widely, moving the eyes at the sky; "Your grandfather helped me."

"He did?" Kaoru blinks, once again surprised; _what exactly is happening behind his back?_

"If it weren't for him to show how good you are - then it would have been difficult to get you in."

"Nanda? So even Haruhi thought it was difficult? That's unexpected." That makes the girl to give him a punch on the arm, but not hardly. She laughs then, and to her surprise; Kaoru laughs with her.

He smiles at her, "Sankyu…"

* * *

Japanese words: 

Ojiisan - grandfather

Onigiri - rice cake or bun

Nanda/Nani? - What?

Sankyu - Thank you

O-bento - Lunch (Is that correct?)

Kowai - Scary

Kaasan - Mother

--

Man, I'm tired…. I should go to sleep already.

Anyway, will you please send reviews:3

Until then - _Jane!_

_Kunisaki_


	6. The Call

**Author's note:**

Greetings folks! Kunisaki here with the usual salute to you readers.

I know it's been long and that you have been waiting for this chapter, I'm really sorry about that!

I won't come with excuses, as I find it kinda dull…

Anyways, I hope that you will enjoy the reading.

* * *

-- C h a p t e r F i v e --

-- T h e C a l l --

* * *

"Oh… crap."

The teen states with a nervous expression on his face, as he lowers down the pieces of paper he holds in his hand.

Surely, things aren't quite well for the male.

His face is paler than usual, as he gapes at the handwriting words; his other hand clenches tightly into a fist, trembling with frustration.

He bits the teeth onto each other, slamming his hand with the paper back on his work desk.

He shouts in anger, placing his other palm on the desk - he glares at the source of his frustration.

"They can't do that!" his voice rises in a louder tone; "How dare they!"

"Allen, you need to calm down…" an elder voice tries to sooths the angry teen.

The redhead paces around the room in pure anger, frustration running over his head.

"Calm down? CALM DOWN?!"

He flings his glares at the place where he has heard the voice; Kaoru runs the hand through his reddish hair, as he stands next to one of the study room's windows.

"I can't, grandpa!" he lowers his voice down – though it's below a shout, he's still speaking in a loud tone.

The redhead breathes out a sigh, laying his forehead on the window glass.

"They're taking it… they're gonna destroy that place."

The elder man frowns sadly, understanding how Kaoru feels about this awful piece of news; he too is frustrated about the fact that they're going to lose that simple place – the place where his long gone daughter worked at, the place where she gave so much efforts on. Though he does know it would happen one day, still it has felt so sudden. The place isn't just a simple building; it's precious of both of them. They are going to lose his daughter's store – the old man rises up from the chair.

"Allen," he calls after his grandson, as the teen turns the head towards him.

"You have to understand that we can't change things as they are, you know that, right?"

Kaoru doesn't want to agree, but he nods slowly at his grandfather's word – he does understand everything about this situation.

The elderly man tries to smile a little, trying to be positive; "I know it's hard to accept, but we can't keep the store for life time."

Kaoru turns away from the window, pacing hastily towards the door –

"I don't want to accept it!" the teen snaps, as he flings the door open and shuts it with angry force.

The elder one sighs sadly, sitting back on the chair; he knows that Kaoru would be upset about this, but he has the right to know - _even if he isn't going to like it._

The fact is that it's about Kaoru's mother, and the grandfather wouldn't keep something so important from the boy.

It is better this way; Kaoru would feel betrayed if he hasn't said it, and that is one of the worst things the elder man wouldn't like to do.

On the hallway of the house, Kaoru walks slower at each second there goes, until he entirely stops his feet from pacing. He sighs with knitted brow, laying his back on the wall. "Maybe…" he says quietly, while he gazes almost emptily on the ceiling – "Maybe I was too harsh… I shouldn't have yelled at him." the redhead glides downwards until his bottom lands on the wooded floor. He sits quietly there, not moving at all – he closes his eyes, inhaling the air to relax himself.

It's not his grandfather's fault; Kaoru doesn't know why he would throw his anger at him, but he was so frustrated right at the moment.

Kaoru lowers his head down, thinking that he should apologize to him and for being too childish again.

Sounds of footsteps crosses his ears, and he throws up his face at the direction where he hears them.

His grandfather walks towards him, squatting beside the redhead.

The grandfather smiles a bit, as he claps a hand on the top of Kaoru's head.

"Guess it wasn't a pleasant conversation we had, my boy."

Kaoru blinks at him some few times, as the elder man starts to speak again;

"I'm sorry that I have caused you frustration and all." He stands up again, starting to pass the silent teen by.

Kaoru turns the look at him, noticing a coat and his grandfather's favourite hat in the old man's hands. The hat gets placed on the top, as the grandfather turns around, smiling to the redhead.

"I have to leave now, the store can't take care of itself. See you soon, Allen."

And then he leaves, walking away from Kaoru.

Said teen lowers down the face again, moving the knees closer to him.

He curls into a ball, sitting there in silence;

"Idiot." He calls this to himself, getting more of the feeling of being stupid.

* * *

"_There's nothing wrong with him!"_

_The woman kept shouting at the man, holding the hands tightly on the sides of her head._

"_I swear that! He's practically fine!"_

"_I'm sorry Mrs." The man stated firmly; the woman watched up at the white-wearing male, her eyes showing frustration and anger._

"_How can you say that? There's nothing wrong with him." she whispered, as tears started to fall down from her eyes._

_She kept her face downcast, repeating the words over again; she didn't want this to happen, she didn't know when it happened__ – she was getting a breakdown._

"_What's wrong with my son, doctor?" she asked quietl__y, while she gazed at the white-covered floor._

_The doctor sighed, feeling sorry for the sad woman's uneasiness._

_"He's hallucinating… he hears things that he shouldn't. I'm afraid that he has an illness, Mrs."_

"_HE'S NOT TAKING DRUGS__!" the lady screams in disaster, glaring hatefully at the man. "He's only a 5 years old child!"_

"_That is not what I meant." The doctor reassured her, but she didn't listen to him._

_Instead, she screamed, yelled as if she was in utter sorrow; this was about her son! Her little boy!_

_She __rose up from the chair she had been sitting on, watching the doctor in desperation._

"_There must be something else to explain this!"_

_The man shook his head, trying to explain to her, but __that only made her even angrier -_

_"I'm really sorry, but this is something we need to experiment with, for the sake of your son, we have to-…"_

_The lady interrupted, glaring with anger, tears running from her eyes;_

"_Oh, so now my son's your laboratory pet!?"_

"_You have to listen," the doctor spoke calmly, as the woman sat down on the waiting chair again, crying in frustration at the hallway._

_"Your son needs this… he needs help."_

_The lady shook on her head, refusing to the fact that something was wrong with her dear precious child._

_She didn't want this to happen._

"_Mom?" a quiet voice spoke, and the lady looked up to the door in front of her._

_A small child stood behind the door, hiding with uneasiness, while the half of his face was showing._

_He frowned sadly, watching the woman as her t__ears stopped from falling down._

"_What's wrong?" he asked innocently – the lady rose up from the chair__ once again, getting over to her little son._

_She embraced him__, as she was still making sobbing sounds._

"_It's okay, mom's here… Everything's okay." She reassured the child, caressing through his hair._

"_But mom… you're crying." The boy said sadly and worried. "I don't like it."_

_The mother smiled, holding him tightly to her._

_"That's selfish, you know?" she stated to him, finding a bit amusement in her son's tone of innocent with those selfish words._

_The boy shook his head, as he started to clench his hands on her jack__et._

_"I don't want you to be sad…" he whispered, gazing at the floor above her shoulder - "Mom should smile and be happy."_

_The lady smiled softly._

_"I know, Hikaru… I know."_

* * *

He's walking outside on the streets, pacing in slow movements; he has been needing some fresh air, after what has happened at the house.

Kaoru sighs into the cold air, his scarf covering around his neck. It's getting colder by the time, and the redhead passes by the walking people, while being in his own thoughts. He doesn't know what he should do with the problem, the one which is about his mother's fabric store. It's not fair; he knows it's selfish, but he doesn't want the store torn away.

It's was his mother's work place, her dreams were there; and they still are.

No, he can't let them take it – he won't accept this.

There's got to be way to prevent the demolition, the question is just how to do it. He walks while thinking in himself, starting to get to plan something to stop those people. He sighs slightly, scratching through his hair; even if he does find a good plan, he still can't do anything about it. He could buy the store, but he needs the money to something else – like food, the paying for the rent, and all those other stuffs.

Kaoru has to take of himself and his grandfather, after all – the redhead is the cook of the house.

He doesn't think that the old man would accept the idea either, even if he also wants the store to still be there.

The teen shakes his head a bit; he guesses that he's thinking too much.

He tries to smile a little, when he sees some people he knows; they're usually friendly to him.

They wave with their hands, smiling to the teen - Kaoru waves back as a reply.

The redhead turns the look forward again, "Oh well," he says to himself, sighing deeply – "At least I could find some stuffs to buy for dinner, now when I'm already out."

He looks down to the sidewalk, thinking in his mind while walking slowly; what should he make this time?

Probably something to brighten his day a bit, but what would do best?

Kaoru turns around a corner, as he holds the look downwards on the ground. He doesn't notice what's happening around him, or actually ignoring the surroundings. Sounds pass his ears; the teen stops up, blinking in puzzlement with his eyes. As he watches up, he freezes on the ground, staring at the source of his now widening eyes.

'_This is not good…' _he thinks immediately.

A group of males - older than him - is standing a bit far-off from the teen.

Kaoru starts to grimace a face, watching them laugh and throw swears at each others.

_'I knew this would come someday…' _Kaoru thinks in himself with irritation; he sees one of them watching up.

"Well, look who's here." A smirk appears on the face of the guy, as he turns around and notices the red-haired teen.

The rest turns as well, and one starts to clap on one other's shoulder, speaking to the rest of the group – "Hey, that's our fellow Allen, right?"

The others begin to smirk, grinning widely.

"Yeah, I remember." One of them states in amusement, while he watches at Kaoru.

Said teen roll his amber eyes, as he turns the head towards the side, narrowing them.

_'This is getting typical again…'_

"Hey, Allen!" the taller one of the group shouts after the redhead, waving at him.

Kaoru stands still on the place; his hands are trusted into his pockets.

The tall teen shrugs on his shoulder, smiling in amusement – "Guess he's not coming."

The red-haired turns around calmly, starting to walk patiently away from the field.

He moves his way from them, as they watch his leaving.

They smirk to each others, one whispering; "Let's get him."

And as expected to this moment; Kaoru begins to speed up his legs, running at the streets. He turns the face over his shoulder, taking glances at what's behind him. As he has expected, the group is running after him with shouts and screaming of laughter. He knows what they will do if they catch him, and it isn't something to feel comfortable at.

"He's fast!" one of the teens yells, when Kaoru makes a quick turn at a corner. As he runs over the road, he jumps over the things, which is signs placing in the middle of a road. Cars are driving, and each beeps on their horns when the redhead runs across them. The cars stop up, yelling after Kaoru – the redhead ignores them though. The group of males crosses the road as well; they're getting closer to the teen.

It loos like a chasing scene for the people on the street, as they grimace weirdly the redhead and the group of 5 other teens – Kaoru appears to be practically calm, while he runs like mad. The other males find it amusing to chase down the red-haired.

'_It's always a game to them.'_

The redhead narrows his eyes in irritation.

He has never really understood why they'll chase after him – and he's pretty sure about he isn't going to find out soon.

But that's not what really bothers him at the moment - what does bother him is; if they catch him, they will surely beat the hell out of him.

And Kaoru is pretty much tired of that.

As the redhead runs further into the city, he comes nearer to a book store in the main streets.

An elderly woman opens the door to the store, just as Kaoru has passed by.

Surprised as she has gotten; the elder lady calls after the teen. "Allen-kun! What the matter, young boy?"

Kaoru stops completely up, turning around to face her.

He sees the chasing males almost near them, and the teen quickly moves over to the elder woman, whispering into her ear.

"Mrs. Hiyashi, can I ask for a favour from you?"

"There he is!" a voice roars up, and the guys run at the direction he's pointing at.

The red-haired lifts up his hand, moving inside the book store - "Thanks a lot!" he says quickly, as he paces hastily through the store and over to the backdoor. The lady waves back to him, smiling with care. "Get him!" another one of the group yells, but they stops up as the elderly woman stands in their way.

The front one of the group shouts at her face; "Move aside grandma!"

The older woman points at the direction on the door, which has a sign hanging on, and it says -

TROUBLEMAKERS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN!

"What!?" the guy gets furious, and is about to punch her – he would have done it, if it isn't for her to hit him on the face with a broom. She shoos the group away, and more of them gets furious, until one yells to the others; "Forget her! Let's go around the building!" and then they leave the elderly lady, heading towards the other side of the store.

Meanwhile; Kaoru runs pass the large among of people, passing through them without pushing. He has gotten used to this running-off since he was a little kid, which has made him pretty fast and good enough to get through small gaps. The last time he has stopped to run away, is when he started the school life though. Of course - running between the walking people will cause surprises and shocks by the sudden-passing-by-creature, as in they don't get to see Kaoru properly enough to realize he's a teenage human. That's kind of rude...

Anyway, it doesn't bother Kaoru at least, not when he's running off and only thinks of getting away from those – as he usually calls them – freaks.

What else should he call them?

He turns around a corner, stopping up to catch his breath. He leans against the wall, breathing heavily with eyes shut. Kaoru is at a place where no one really comes to, like an alley where it's dark and sunlight can't come in to shine that place up. When he finally has caught his normal breath-rhyme, the teen watches from the corner, seeing after if the group has gotten nearer. He sighs in annoyance; just as he expected – they are indeed nearby.

They're still seeking after him, and each one begins to seek after the teen by themselves. Kaoru doesn't know what they are trying to do, maybe ambush him by surprise and finally smash him into pieces. _'Let them come.'_ The redhead dares, thinking inside his mind. They aren't that dumb to not plan something so obvious, Kaoru's just smarter than them – and it's proved.

Maybe that's why they started to hate him in that time, because he's behaving differently and is somewhat smarter than them? Wait – he remembers that it is because of that. The teen grimaces an annoyed look; all this just because he's different.

"There! I've found him!" a shout comes out loud, and that causes Kaoru to blink with his eyes.

"Not again…" he says with teeth gritting on each other, and he starts to get away from the alley, speeding up his legs again.

When the redhead looks over his shoulder, more than 5 seems to appear – it seems that some of them have gotten the rest of the gang… how nice, eh?

"Why should my hair be red?" Kaoru says to himself in irritation, _'why does it have to be that colour?' _– no one at the old school, other than him, has the colour red as their natural hair colour; it makes it easier to recognize him at once. Blond would never suit him, maybe he should colour his hair darker? No, that wouldn't help at all… they would still recognize him somehow.

"You won't get away, Allen!"

The owner of the name narrows his eyes.

As he runs, he can already see the stairs to the main station. That is his ticket away from them, and he runs straight over to the long stairs, crossing the enormous field where people's just walking around, passing and moving slowly. The teen can feel how close the large group is to get him, as he begins to move quickly up at the steps - their yells gets higher for each time they shout.

Kaoru begins thinks in annoyance;

'_Just as I hoped for a great dinner… now I can't buy the stuffs I __need to prepare for the evening.'_

The redhead gets closer to the last step, as the larger group is right at the heels. His face brightens up, as he sees a train waiting for its take-off. Kaoru runs over to the vehicle, jumping inside as the doors' about to close; the gang hits into the train and slams their fists on the place where the teen is most close to.

Kaoru can hear their cursing words at him, but he ignores them – he's still in annoyance because of the lost opportunity of getting his dinner.

Soon, the security comes; running towards the gang. They grab after the gang's members - which are younger than the adults of course, but older than Kaoru – they get pulled away from the station. "Get off!" the taller one of the boys shouts, still glaring deathly at the secured redhead.

The guards take them away, dragging them towards the exit of the station – the train begins to rotate the wheels, starting the drive on the rails.

Kaoru releases a sigh, as he sits down on one of the seats. There's a somewhat silence in the place he sits at, as he can only hear the train driving and his heavily breathing.

The teen closes his eyes slightly; he's alone as usual – "Typical…" he states with a sigh.

He watches up to the side, seeing that he should get off the train. He can live with taking a longer walk than usual; at least he doesn't need to deal with those from that blasted school again. The teen stands up from the seat, heading towards the doors.

As the train stops, he pushes on the button – which will make the doors open up – but then he blinks a few times. He pushes again, and nothing happens. "Eh?" Kaoru blinks again, repeating the process over and over. His eyes widen up, and starting to get desperate.

"Come on!" his voice raises up, while he starts to hit on the doors, knocking with his fists.

"Someone open up! Anyone?" nothing replies to him, only utter silence. First now, Kaoru realizes that there isn't anyone inside this train. _'Oh Great...'_

Besides, this kind of train is one of those without an engine-driver.

A modern kind, which is made with a computer system's build inside.

No need for a driver, when this one could drive by itself.

Kaoru lays his forehead on the door's window – he's trapped… and he can't get out.

The train starts the wheels, and the teen widens his eyes. "Hey, wait!" he yells, restarting the process in desperation. The train suddenly drives faster than it should, and Kaoru loses his balance on the floor. He stumbles over his feet, falling onto his bottom roughly. The back of his head hits the wall, which causes the redhead to grimace a pained look on his features.

The wheels underneath him increase up the speed, as Kaoru feels the pressure holding him firmly onto the wall. He finds himself wanting to scream up, but nothing could get out from his mouth; the pressure of the speed is too strong.

Before he reacts, the train abruptly stops on the rails, suddenly holding by a new station. Kaoru breathes out after the air, swallowing the ache in his throat down. He breathes in and out, trying to regain his normal breathing rhyme. "What... was that?"

The door opens normally up, while the red-haired turns his head carefully. He blinks at the exit, staring at the ground before him.

The door waits for him to leave – Kaoru stands carefully up, wobbling a bit on his feet. He guesses that drive must have shocked him quite much. The teen hesitates at first, but then decides to take a step forward.

He gets out of the train, while walking some few steps front. The door closes, while the teen turns his eyes over the shoulder. The vehicle begins it's leaving, driving away from the station.

The redhead looks around – this station has he never been at before… is it new?

The gate to the station's exit opens up by itself, causing the teen to stare dumbfounded at it. Something is off, and Kaoru knows that. A worried feeling starts to grow inside him; he knits his brows in a troubled way. Maybe he should find a way to get home, his grandfather is properly worried by now.

But there is something which wouldn't let him leave, his curiosity has been growing, and soon he can't resist the urge of exploring the place he's been left to.

Kaoru shakes his head furiously, thinking that this is not and absolutely NOT a good idea.

He thrusts his hand into his jacket's pocket, digging after his wallet. The teen pulls it out, opening it up while looking inside of the leather-made object. He freezes, while he stares blankly at the wallet.

"Empty…" he says out, smiling strangely with twitches on his face. Now he can't buy a ticket, huh?

"NO WAY!" the teen shouts, frustrated by the lost of money – has he really dropped the cash? No, that can't be!

"DAMN IT! HOW CAN I BUY FOOD FOR DINNER TONIGHT?!"

The redhead blinks – something has caught his attention while he's been shouting in frustration. Some kind of a blurry figure is at the end of the station's gate, and it's moving strangely; Kaoru stares for a moment; "What the-…?"

The breeze catches his scarf, turning into a strong wind instead; it's like it is pulling on the warm fabric, dragged him towards a direction. The wind makes a turn, which causes the scarf to hit him on the face, and prevent him from the ability to see. "Hey!" he manages to exclaim before the scarf covers up his face. He feels how the wind drags on him, as he tries to stay on the place, wanting to move the other way.

'_Blasted wind, I can't see at all!'_

He gets irritated by the air's pressure, which drags and pushes him to wherever god knows! Soon he begins to feel his feet losing the hold on the ground, and he falls onto the hard and flat sidewalk. The wind is still taking him to somewhere he doesn't know, most because he can't see or can't get the scarf away from his eyes.

'_Winds are__n't supposed to behave like this!'_

One thing's for sure – there are no people around this place; none…

After Kaoru's opinion, he can't hear any footsteps, and he doesn't hit into any folks who is walking by.

The wind keeps blowing, pushing, dragging him – Kaoru doesn't know how long he's been romping around, as he begins to not care anymore.

He can't stop the weird behaving wind anyway, so he lets it take him to whatever place.

That's until it stops completely… Until Kaoru can't feel the wind anymore, and he rises up to a sitting position, taking the scarf away from his sight.

He blinks some few times, while staring with widen eyes in amazement.

He gaps at the sight of an enormous building right before his eyes. It stands high in its magnificent glory, while the still showing sun shines on the huge windows, reflecting the light.

What catches his attention is how unique the building appears to be – he has never seen a place like this before.

_How has he gotten here? Why a place like this? Why the heck is he anyway? _Things aren't quite well, the teen firmly declares in his thoughts. _  
_

The redhead's astounded by the beautiful mansion and it's surroundings, he gaps at the sight; _how could people buy such a place?_

He stands up from the ground, still keeping the eyes at the building.

There's something calling for him – though he doesn't know why – but at the same time he isn't sure of if he should seek after that call. It comes from the mansion; the teen doesn't find it a good idea to get inside a building, which he's not allowed in. Suddenly, the front door slowly opens up, while the redhead freezes at the ground - it's the building which calls for him, but why? Buildings can't do that.

"Eh? Is that-…?"

Kaoru hears the voice from behind; it sounds kinda surprised.

He turns around, blinking at the teen before him. The other teen blinks back at him as well, watching in puzzlement.

Kaoru rubs his eyes, watching up again – he could swear that he just has seen his mirror image standing in front of him, but then he realizes that it isn't. It's the Hitachiin heir, Hikaru is his name.

'_Why is he here?'_ the teen wonders with an bewildered expression - _'Did he also get dragged by the annoying wind?'  
_

"What are you doing here, Allen?" Hikaru asks, breaking Kaoru away from his thoughts.

He shrugs on his shoulder a bit, looking at the side; "I… I don't really know." He admits truthfully, scratching the back of his neck.

A breeze passes between them – Kaoru sees the other redhead watching up to the sky, he blinks when Hikaru suddenly smiles a grin.

Said teen turns the head back at Kaoru, smiling normally at him. "That's okay, I guess."

The redhead walks towards him, while holding his coat and bag in his arm.

Hikaru watches up at Kaoru, while the other red-haired teen watches back in confusion.

Kaoru notice how the heir's eyes are focusing on him, locking his own eyes in the look.

"You seem to be hungry… What about I offered you lunch?"

"Eh?" the teen blinks at Hikaru, not really getting it.

The Hitachiin grins again, this time in amusement; "Wanna eat lunch together? I'll be the one paying."

Kaoru stares, never understanding the other redhead's calmness. Lunch? Why does he want to eat to lunch with him? Kaoru shouldn't be standing here, not when he knows he should have taken home for a long time ago. But, he is getting a bit hungry...

"I don't know…" he says clearly, but in hesitation.

"It's only if you would like to."

"I think I should better lea-…" and he holds onto his stomach, as a growling sound interrupts his sentence.

A troubled expression places on Kaoru's features, and he suddenly feels awkward.

Usually, these kinds of things don't turn up, not for him at least. Is he more hungry than he has thought?

A chuckle comes from his 'double ganger' – "So… What's the reply?"

Kaoru sighs deeply, turning the eyes at the side – "Well… I guess it can't hurt."

* * *

"_Who are you?" the little child asked curiously, gazing at the __other kid behind the glass._

"_You don't know?" said child smiled mysteriously back, he grinned at the astounded boy._

"_I'm you." He told simply as an answer._

_The little boy blinked in confusion, he began to scratch through his reddish hair._

_He struggled on with his face, trying to figure out this new experience he had received._

"_But…" he started; "But if you're me__, and I'm me too… how can there be two of me?"_

"_Silly." The word came from the boy behind the glass, which was covered by a golden painted and fantasy-patterned frame._

_he grinned childishly, pointing at his own chest. "I am your reflection, your other self."_

_The little boy gazed at the smiling child, who looked the __very same as him. His hair though was parted the other way than the little boy's hair usually was._

_Everything else looked the same._

"_To say it in short; I'm your mirror image."_

_The little child watched interesting at the huge mirror, "So you know everything about me?"_

_The reflection nodded, "Yup, that's true."_

_The little redhead stood quiet for a moment; the boy in front of him knew everything about him._

_He knew what little Hikaru has been doing lately, knew what he was seeing, experiencing._

_Even the thoughts Hikaru had in his mind. His name, his age, his family and friends - the reflection knew Hikaru as if he was the redhead himself._

_Something clicked in his thoughts, and the child watched up to the mirror again._

"_What's your name?"_

_The mirror didn't respond, but the other him blinked back in puzzlement. "Well…" he stated out uneasily._

"_I don't really have one… Yours is the name I hear the most."_

"_Oh…" the boy scratched his neck, lifting the head upwards to the ceiling._

_Then he gazed back at his mirror image, Smiling brightly; "Karu."_

_The reflection stared, blinking with his eyes. "Huh?"_

"_You're Karu now." The red-haired smiled to the mirror, lifting his hand while making some few movements with them._

_"I'm taking the 'Hi' away from my name, so now there's only 'Karu' that's left… From now on I'm calling you Karu."_

_The mirror image was quiet for a while, but then he smiled; "Okay then."_

_Both of them smiled to each other – Hikaru moved his hand towards the glass, and so did his reflection, or Karu as he's called now.  
_

_The redhead still found it unbelievable, but their small hands touched, holding in a hand-shaking form._

"_Is it a deal, Karu?" Hikaru asked with a grin._

"_It's a deal, Hikaru." Karu smiled the same way as the boy did._

* * *

One request:

PLEASE REVIEW! :D

See you later until next time I update another story or chapter!

Jane!

_- Kunisaki_


	7. The Hitachiin

**Author's note:** Urgh, I'm so tired already…

Greetings, everyone! Kunisaki is BACK! :B

Man, I'm so glad that I'm done with this chapter; it was taking so long to write it! ;;

Those tests at school seriously take a lot of my spare time, but I finished the Math test – hurray for that! Anyways, I'm utterly sorry about the long waiting you guys have been dealing with; I do hope it is okay.

To those who has been reviewing to this story: I'm so grateful to you guys! You've been keeping me in motivation to write further, and make it as good as my English can handle it – I mean it, I'm not even good at English, I'm can't the language good enough. Thank you so much for so far! :D

Ah, get on with the story already!

Oh yeah, right…!

* * *

-- C h a p t e r S i x --

-- T h e H i t a c h i i n --

* * *

_It was cold on this day._

_Whenever because it was the season of winter and the falling snow outside, where the temperature was on the freezing point._

_Or it was the cold feeling of being alone... – either way, he just knew it was a cold day._

_Why was he here?_

_His eyes watched emptily on the ground before him, sitting on a bend covered by the white snow._

_He never knew why he was here __at this place at the beginning._

_The clock bells rang; quietly – the snow was falling down on the ground quietly._

_He didn't move, didn't move a single part of himself._

_He gazed at the snow, which fell slowly down from the sky above._

_Everything was white, so pure… so peaceful._

_He glanced up to the sky – i__t was covered up by the clouds._

_He couldn't see the blue sky behind those white floating things, drifting with the cold winter breeze._

_The other kids watched him from behind, still being inside the huge building._

_Warmth came from the fireplace in the enormous living room; fire burning th__e wood._

_The grandfather clock - which stood at the dinner room, moved its second hand – each second after another._

_It was warm inside, not like the outside where the odd boy was._

"_Should we go outside?" one of the children asked, eyes turning towards the window._

_Another one shook his head, "No, it's cold out there. I don't wanna freeze."_

"_But the snow seems fun to play with."_

"_Not when __he's__ out there."_

"_Oh, right… You mean __him__."_

"_Man, he's ruining the fun."_

_He knew the kids were watching him, even if he was back-facing them._

_He wondered why the children disliked him… probably because he was such an odd kid._

_No one understood him, no one wanted to talk to him; he was afraid that he mig__ht even not understand himself._

_He shook the thought off; it didn't __matter if they didn't like him._

_Not to him at least._

_If they wanted it that way, then he's fine with that._

_His family properly didn't like him either, why else should he be here then?_

_He was left here in this orphanage, left alone by himself._

_So the thing with the kids disliking him, he didn't care – because it was the same way with the family leaving him._

_He raised up the knees close up to him, his arms crossing over as he hided the face with them._

_At this moment, he just wanted to be alone – he didn't want anyone near him._

_Because people hurt him, and he didn't like to be hurt._

_No one did._

_He was fine being alone._

* * *

"That was great!" the teen breathes out, letting his back fall onto the chair while he sits in a lazy position.

A pleased smile creeps upon his lips, while he exhausts a sigh with contentment.

That has been a great lunch to the redhead, as he smiles with the eyes lightly closed.

Hikaru opens one eye at the teen before him, "Eh?" he blinks a bit puzzled, sitting up proper on his seat. "Allen, you didn't enjoy it?"

The name crosses the other redhead's ears, as he has his forehead lying on the cloth-covered table.

He's been doing that after they have done with the dishes.

They are also drinking 'common tea', as Hikaru referrers it - Kaoru calls it normally green tea.

The boy with two names sighs heavily, wondering how this guy could be so carefree.

If he hasn't notices it, there are practically people around, and they're watching with their eyes in amazement.

Well, it's no wonder why they are curious; two people with identical faces? No one gets to see this often.

Kaoru wonders about why he and the heir look so alike. _Why do they?_

An answer has yet to come to him, and he doesn't understand why it has to be him, who's having the same face as another person!

_Why couldn't it just be someone else?_

Once again, he can't figure out why the Hitachiin is so calm about this.

"Aaaaaallen… was the food great?" Hikaru asks the redhead, as Kaoru lifts up the look from the table.

The heir smiles at him with a bright grin, as his head lies on the table in the same as Kaoru's.

The other teen grimaces a face, while narrowing his eyes a bit - He sighs, then responding; "Stop imitating me. It's already weird that we have identical faces."

Hikaru raises him from the table, but still grinning his smile; "But, did you like the food?"

'_What's with that smile?'_ Kaoru thinks inside himself, knitting the eyebrows.

"Yes, it was great." He replies to the question Hikaru has asked him about three times. Somehow, he's getting tired of that smile the heir always shows. No, wait… He's already annoyed of it. But it doesn't irritate him as he thought it would, he has just seen it too many times now, and it's only the second time they've seen each other.

"Good, I'm glad about that." The Hitachiin grins brightly, kinda childish…

...

'_He's__... He's weird!'_ Kaoru confirms as he sweat-drops, finding how odd that guy is.

He seriously hasn't met someone like that before, anyone to be correctly. The world seems to be bigger than he thinks – but then again, he has met his 'double ganger'. Would that mean it's a small world after all? Kaoru shakes his head mentally, he's getting too confused now – he needs to get a hold of himself. Double gangers do not exist, they can't exist. He knows that already. And what about dreams becoming real? No, they can't either.

It's already told too many times now, but they have same face, same hair-colour and same amber eyes. Kaoru still doesn't believe it, because Hikaru can't be the boy in his dreams. No way, that can't be true. _'Since when did dreams become real?'_ He laughs inwardly - never, it's impossible, it's absurd, completely unnatural.

There is no way for dreams to become true, and the redhead knows about that fact.

There is even no possible ways for things - such as furniture and other invented stuffs - to be alive. The 'Hikaru' in Kaoru's dreams can talk with stuffs, which shouldn't be talking back to him. This confirms his certainty – 'the redhead in the dreams' does not exist in real life. What chances could there be, if the heir is the one in Kaoru's dreams? It can't be real; it's silly, stupid - absurd!

The conclusion of dreams getting real is just plain dumb.

However, he suddenly grasps after him the side of his head, hiding the ears - somewhere far within his head there's a voice screaming at the teen, yelling at him to give it a reason for the other redhead's existence.

'_He's __right beside of you, and you don't think it's him?! He's name is Hikaru, and HECK! You guys have the same looks! NOW CONCLUDE THAT!'_

The teen groans inwardly, getting tired of that little hysterical voice, "Shut up…!" he mutters in irritation.

"Excuse me?" Hikaru asks surprised, narrowed eyes blinking unsurely.

Kaoru throws the look at the teen, "Nothing, nothing at all." He quickly says, waving with his right hand.

The heir stares blankly at him, and then shrugs on his shoulder. "Oh... if you say so."

…

…

...

"Ah, I guess the time's off." Hikaru finally states, rising up from his chair. "Shall I take you home or something?"

Kaoru rises up as well, scratching his neck a little – he eyes meet the other red-haired's. "That's fine, I can walk by myself."

He places the chair properly back by the table; "How much shall I pay back to you?"

Hikaru stares blankly at him, blinking once or twice. "Eh… nothing?"

The other redhead sighs slightly, a hand running down at his face. "I mean it, Hikaru. How much?" Kaoru says to the heir, while grabbing after his jacket.

He can't accept the offer from Hikaru, because that's how he is.

He's not the accepting kind, when it comes to offering.

"I already told you, you don't need to pay back." the Hitachiin heir states, smiling to the teen.

"No, I can not accept the offer." Kaoru replies stubbornly, refusing – "It doesn't feel right."

He thinks back to when he held the cart in his hands, watching the prices.

The red-haired gulps, sweat-dropping; _'Those prices were too high.'_

His face twitches nervously when he recalls the moment, so many numbers and zeros… he can't even effort that much of money.

_'How rich are those, who eat at a place like this?!'_

The place – which the redheads are at - looks kind of expensive to Kaoru's taste with the fine-made furniture filling the large room, the beautiful porcelain teacups from other countries, which stand inside a white patterned glass closets, and then the huge chandelier hanging on the ceiling above the middle of the room.

This place is… well, too grand for someone like him.

The place is unbelievable! Does a commoner often come at this restaurant?

No, most certainly not.

How could they pay for such high-classed quality of dishes?

Hikaru knits the eyebrows together, resting his chin on his hand, which has the elbow on the table.

_'Ah… I thought so.'_

He closes his eyes slightly, responding; "I don't see why that should be a problem… Besides, there isn't many of chooses, right?"

'_Oh, right…'_ Kaoru has almost forgotten that his wallet is empty.

Apparently, he has dropped the money somewhere, and it's properly been taken away by some greedy person already.

Practically… everyone in this world is greedy, so of course they would take it.

He sighs heavily in defeat, his head hanging downcast, "Fine! You get it your way then."

As Hikaru pays the bills, and both of the redheads get their outdoor clothing on; the heir watches outside of the window, seeing water-drops falling down from the sky. Hikaru frowns a bit, then turning the head towards the other red-haired. "Are you sure that you'll walk by yourself? I can drive you home if you need-…"

"Yeah, it's fine." Kaoru interrupts immediately, but not so rudely.

"I've been a bother already, and rain doesn't really concern me." He says truthfully to the Hitachiin – he likes to be outside in the rain after all. He has his own reason to why.

"But it is a long way to take."

"I'm fine with that."

"Are you sure?" Hikaru asks again, knitting the brows together.

The other teen nods slightly, "I'll be fine, honestly."

_It's just rain after all._

"Ah… I see." Hikaru says as his voice gets lower, the head lowering down and his hand scratching on his cheek.

"Then!" he looks up again while pulling out an umbrella from his pocket, grabbing after Kaoru's palm and thrust it to the redhead in front of him.

"Take this! I insist that you should take it, or else you would catch a cold."

"Eh?" Kaoru stares at the object he has gotten, and then turns up to the redhead. "I… I don't need it, Hikaru. But thanks anyway."

He hands the umbrella back to the Hitachiin, but that only makes Hikaru to shake his head fiercely.

"No! I insist, Allen." He stubbornly shoves it back to Kaoru, clapping a hand on the teen's shoulder.

Kaoru sighs then, grimacing an annoyed look.

Great… they're both somewhat stubborn, and it won't lead to anything if this continues on.

"Fine then, I'll take it." he replies as he gives in, and Hikaru smiles a bright grin to his success.

'_Somehow, I'm getting rather annoyed of this…'_ Kaoru thinks to himself, twitching his face in annoyance.

And thus, the two red-haired teens are walking out of the restaurant and to the outside with the rain falling from the sky – both of them stopped up to look at each other for one last time. Kaoru opens the umbrella, unfolding it and raise it above his head.

"Well, I'll be going then. Thanks for the lunch." He says to the heir.

Hikaru grins at the teen, "No problem."

And as Kaoru turns around, walking bit away from the Hitachiin, he hears the voice of the redhead behind him, as it shouts something like "Eh, watch out for the-!"

"Huh?" the red-haired turns to Hikaru again, but is seeing water flying over to him instead.

_'Oh crap…'_

…

SPLASH!

…

Hikaru is hiding the eyes with his palms, as he can hear how the water splashes loudly inside his ears.

He removes the hands, blinking at the now wet-looking teen.

He watches blankly for a second, and then placing a hand over his mouth.

"Y-you're okay?" he asks the redhead in somewhat amusement, while the said teen stands in silence – a twitch pulling on the corner of his lips.

Kaoru removes his wet bangs away from his eyes, as he narrows them while turning the look at Hikaru.

"Well… I'm all wet, that's what I can tell you."

…

"Pfft!" the heir snorts, grinning widely – soon, he starts to laugh, and heck! He can't stop laughing, because this is too much amusing!

Kaoru raises an eyebrow, "Oh, so it's really funny?" he asks irritated, rather offended.

"I'm sorry… Allen…!" Hikaru manages to say between laughter, while he grins widely and presses the hand against his mouth.

"It's… its too funny!" but that doesn't seem to be helping him to stop the laughter.

Apparently, a car has been driving fast on the road, and it has rained too much that the water could splash so high up from the ground, when the car drove pass the unlucky teen.

And the unlucky teen appears to be Kaoru, the one and only.

"Why?" the teen wonders out loudly, hanging with his head downwards. "Why is it always me?"

Today is definitely not his day.

* * *

_"What's your name?"_

_The boy watched up, as he heard the voice from above._

_He glanced towards the person in front of him, while he was digging in the sand, playing with it._

_It was a little girl – she wore a smile on her face, an innocent and warm smile._

_The boy watched her eyes; they were brown and huge. He had never seen eyes as big as those._

_At first, he just looked at her, not saying anything while watching with no expression on._

_The girl sat herself down in front of the sand-castle the boy had made, as she placed down her red bucket, filled with shells inside._

"_I'm Haruhi. Shall we play together, stranger?"_

_The boy grimaced a face, frowning a bit – "Not __stranger__." he replied annoyed, as he continued on digging in the sand. "It's Allen."_

_The girl with the long brown hair smiled then, lifting her bucket towards the little redhead._

_He stared at it, blinking with his eyes._

_When he turned the look at the girl instead, he saw a bright smile as the first thing._

"_Nice to meet you, Allen. Shall we be friends?"_

_The boy named Allen watched blankly, "What's a friend?" he asked confused._

_Haruhi blinked for a moment, getting surprised to get such a question. "You don't know?"_

_The redhead shook his head slightly._

"_It's someone to play with. You've never played with anyone?"_

"_Nope."_

"_But…" the girl knitted her brows together, "but that's too sad."_

_Allen shrugged on his shoulder, "I'm used to it."_

"_Haruhi! Dear, let's go back to the hotel!"_

_Haruhi turned her head around, waving towards her parents. "Haaaaai!!" she yelled back._

_When she turned back to the redhead, she smiled again – she took the boy's hand for a minute, as he blinked at her in puzzlement._

"_Let's be friends, Allen." She grinned brightly, and the red-haired boy nodded slowly. He couldn't really refuse to her._

_And then she ran off, running over to her parents as two adults were waiting for her._

_Allen __watched them leave the beach – he turned the eyes down to his hand, looking at the shell he got from Haruhi._

_It was sort of… a pretty one._

"_Allen! There you are!" a voice called._

_He turned around, seeing his grandfather walking over to him._

"_Now," the grandfather said, grinning to the little red-haired, "It's getting late, my boy… shall we ahead back to the hotel?"_

_The redhead nodded, smiling a bit._

_His grandfather smiled back, as they grabbed after each other's hands._

"_Let's go then."_

* * *

Kaoru sighs heavily, while he watches the rain pouring down on the ground.

It doesn't seem to stop any minute, and he's getting all cold by just looking at it.

He sneezes, as he grimaces a face - which appears to be an irritated expression. Why should it be today? It's not often that he catches a cold, but does it have to be right now and then? His head hangs downcast, while he sighs once again in annoyance.

He grabs after the upper part of his arms, feeling the soft fabric of the bathrobe he has gotten from Hikaru. It feels weird to have it on, which Kaoru reassures to himself. Maybe because he has never wore a bathrobe in the first place - either that or he gets the feeling of awkwardness, because he doesn't have… any… clothes on……… besides the bathrobe.

A knock on the door interrupts his thought, as the large wood-made door opens just a bit, but wide enough for the Hitachiin to stick his head inside the room.

"Feeling better?" the redhead asks with a grin on his face.

He opens the door fully, while holding two cups of warm tea.

As he walks towards the sneezing teen, one of the cups gets moved in front of Kaoru.

"Here you go." Hikaru responds, smiling as always.

"Thanks." The other teen replies, taking the cup in his hands.

It doesn't seem that Kaoru has gotten home after all, not when he's sitting with the Hitachiin on a huge sofa, which is inside a huge living room, and which is the living room of an even huger house. Apparently, he's at Hikaru's house, because the redhead has insisted on it.

'_It's this place his house?!'_ Kaoru finds himself thinking, as he gazes amazed at the large bookcases, filled with an enormous amount of literatures.

_'So many books to read.'_

"Your clothes are set to drying, so just relax a bit." The heir says - taking a sip from the cup he holds with his two hands.

"Ah…" Kaoru nods slowly, knitting the eyebrows together.

_'I should have already gotten home now…' _he thinks in his head, narrowing his amber eyes at the non-stopping rain. _'I can't be sitting here all day.'_

It's just pouring down with water, but it doesn't stop.

So he's stuck here…

"Shouldn't you dry your hair?" Hikaru asks the redhead, while gazing at the still wet-looking bangs on Kaoru's face.

Kaoru touches his hair, "No need to, I think."

He has already dried it with the towel, but apparently… Hikaru doesn't think so.

"I rather let it dry naturally," Kaoru states to him, leaning back on the sofa; "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, nothing."

Hikaru watches how the red hair brushes against the sofa – he grimaces a bit, narrowing his eyes. They sit quietly beside each other, while Kaoru takes a sip from his warm tea, and the heir staring at his wet hair.

"Hey," Hikaru breaks the silence, twitching nervously with a smile on - "shouldn't we go upstairs and dry your hair? What do you say?"

"Eh… that's okay, but thanks anyway." Kaoru replies back, cutting him off.

The Hitachiin sighs then.

…

…

…

SLAM!

"Okay, I can't take it!" he shouts frustrated, while the other teen stares back in puzzlement.

The cup has gotten slammed down on the table before the teens.

As Hikaru rises up from the sofa, he grabs after Kaoru's arm, lifting him up to his feet.

"Eh, n-nani?!" Kaoru stammers bewildered, watching the Hitachiin surprised and shocked on the same time.

"Upstairs, NOW!"

And thus, the teens run out of the living room, as Hikaru drags Kaoru with him. Up at the stairs they walk, and directly to the room at the end of the corridor.

"Where are you taking me?!" Kaoru yells confused, but gets no reply from the teen before him.

He has no idea what the Hitachiin is thinking, or where he's dragging him. The door flings opens, while Hikaru pulls him inside the bedroom, shoving the redhead on the king-sized bed. Kaoru stares bewildered, as the heir walks hastily towards another room, probably the bathroom to this room. "What does he want?" Kaoru knits the eyebrows; suddenly, the heir has gotten mad – and now the redhead has pulled Kaoru inside a bedroom, which the teen doesn't understand why.

The door to the bathroom opens wide up, and Hikaru stands there – with a hairdryer.

The other redhead stares dumbfounded at him.

"Hikaru, are you seri-?"

The redhead gets cut off, as Hikaru walks directly to him, grabbing him up from the bed, and pulls out a chair. "Sit down!" he demands, pointing at the chair.

Kaoru blinks, then responding; "It's just hair, Hika-…"

"SIT!" the other teen shouts, causing him to sit immediately down, silencing himself.

Hikaru turns the hairdryer on, already drying Kaoru's red locks.

The shocked teen is quiet, while watching down to his feet.

_'He doesn't have to be that scary…'_ he thinks inside his mind, as the heir messes his hair with one hand, and holding the dryer with the other one.

"Don't do that to your hair. It'll cry if you don't take care of it."

"Uhm, sure…" Kaoru replies.

_'what's that suppose to mean?' _he raises an eyebrow.

The Hitachiin heir gets even more weird for each minute there goes.

Some time after, the dryer turns off, and Hikaru sighs deeply – placing the object away from him. "If there's something you regret, then fix it."

"Huh?" Kaoru blinks a bit confused.

"You got split ends…" Hikaru states out, while touching the redhead's hair. "But it's still kinda soft."

'_What? Split ends and soft hair? Something I regret?'_

"Erh… Your point, thanks?"

Hikaru grins then, letting go of Kaoru; "Oh it's nothing."

…

...

"You're weird… you know that?"

The Hitachiin blinks, then raising the head upwards to the ceiling.

"That's what the others tell me every day."

Kaoru turns the look at the Hitachiin, blinking when he sees how far-off the teen's eyes are.

Hikaru stands quiet in a moment; a smile slowly creeps upon his lips.

"Well," he breathes out, gazing back at the sitting red-haired. "It doesn't matter what they think anyway."

'_He's dangerously carefree…'_ Kaoru states mentally, sweat-dropping.

But it sort of reminds him that he's also indifferent about others' opinion, in a different way though…

"Let's sit on the bed instead!" Hikaru laughs, grinning widely. Before Kaoru could even react, he grasps after his hand, pulling him towards the bed and shoves him down on it. Then the Hitachiin jumps on the huge soft madras, right next to the identical looking boy. "Why are we sitting on the bed, Hikaru?" Kaoru responds back, as he raises his brow in question. Hikaru lays his back down, stretching the arms while getting rid of the tension in his muscles. "I'm a bit tired… What about you, Allen?" he asks with closed eyes, placing the hands on the back of his head.

A sigh passes from the other redhead, as he stands up from the bed, turning the head over his shoulder to glance at Hikaru. "I better leave now, before I get someone worried." He blinks the eyes a second, while seeing amber eyes staring at him as well. Hikaru breathes a sigh deeply; his eyes closed again – he sits upright, nodding his head in understanding. "Right… I get it, I get it." he stands up, walking towards the door.

Hikaru shrugs on his shoulders, "There isn't any much you can do here anyway, so you can leave as you wish."

A silence between the two teen passes by, as Kaoru stands in wondering, knitting his eyebrow confused.

Kaoru heads toward the teen, reaching out his hand after his shoulder – "Well then, can I get my cloth-…?" but then he trips with his eyes wide open, and the palm grabs after the lower part of Hikaru's shirt instead, causing the redhead to jerk backwards with a shocked expression.

"W-whoa, slow down!" the heir stammers out, getting a hold on the doorframe.

"Ah, sorry!" Kaoru apologizes, sweat-dropping – why must he be born so clumsy? But he stops to wonder about that, because something catches his attention. He stares blankly down on his hand – which has another hand in the grasp.

He watches as his palm holds onto Hikaru's, and the same does the heir.

Both of them let go of each other, laughing awkwardly to one another.

"I'll go get your clothes, just wait here." It comes from the rich teen, while a smile crosses over his face; he leaves then, walking pass the door and head towards the stairs. When he's sure that he has gotten away from the room with a good long distance, he gazes on his hand for a while, knitting the eyebrows together.

_'What... was that all about?'_ He wonders about it, but doesn't seem to get an answer.

"_What was that?"_ a voice asks the hasty walking teen, smirking in amusement.

Hikaru grimaces in annoyance, the last thing he wants to do was dealing with his mirror image.

"Not now, Karu." The redhead deadpans, while ignoring and walking pass the huge long mirror at the hallway.

The mirror teen grins, his smile getting wider – _"I don't know why you're so worked up, but it has something to be dealing with, right?"_

Hikaru stops up, turning around; "Just stay out of it, you have no right to do anything reckless, remember?" the redhead states harshly, demanding the mirror image to be quiet as long as there are guests in the house. A common rule the mirror boy knows. Karu smirks shamelessly, putting his hand underneath the chin.

_"Ah, is that so?" _he chuckles slightly, as he crosses his arms over. _"Whatever master says… But, couldn't be fun to try it once?"_

Hikaru sighs slightly, turning the eyes at the mirror; "As much as I would love to, but it won't be this time, Karu."

"_Haaa?"_ Karu exclaims in disappointment, dropping his grin. _"Man, you're no fun today."_ He states out dryly, frowning like an upset child.

_"I'm disappointed in you, Hitachiin Hikaru – the son of the famous fashion-designer, AND former prankster number one."_

He shakes his head slightly, _'shame on you.'_

Hikaru raises an eyebrow; he knows exactly what his other self has thought.

"I have no idea of what you're trying to-… What!? WHAT DO MEAN BY FORMER PRANKSTER?!" he yells in annoyance, really offended by the words - and from his own mirror image.

"_Oh, I thought you already knew, I guess I was wrong after all."_

The teen inside the mirror grins, waving a hand at the boy, _"Don't mind about it, Hikaru. We all know that I'm currently number one."_

'_Bastard…'_ the redhead grits his teeth; his mirror has somewhat always seen himself higher ranked than Hikaru, what a self-absorbed arrogant.

It makes him wonder if the mirror has gotten it from him - he gets the chills to even think about, shivering in displease.

"Go and praise yourself, now that you're already started." the redhead says, leaving the mirror alone.

_"Ah, just remember to not get caught for what you're doing!"_

The red-haired just shakes his head.

Whatever that means, he doesn't really care.

* * *

"_I been dreaming some weird dreams, and I don't know for how long now."_

"_I wonder about why I get these dreams, and why's it's always about the same person."_

"_I want to know who he is, but I sort of don't really believe he would exist anyway."_

"_Sometimes, I can't even describe what he is, besides having the same looks as I."_

"_I don't personally know him… How can I, when I haven't met him yet?"_

"_Hee hee…"_

"_It's kinda funny."_

"_And why that is, that's because he's… well."_

"_He's sort of a big part of my life already."_

"_As told, I've been dreaming about him ever since."_

"_And because of that, he's everywhere to me…"_

"_I don't who he is, and I haven't seen him in real life."_

"_But… he's the only one that makes me believe, that I'm not alone."_

"– _Sincerely;"_

"_Kaoru…"_

* * *

"Well, thanks for the drive." Kaoru bows a bit down, while he stands in front of the gate to his house.

A smile creeps upon Hikaru's lips, as he shakes his head slightly. "It's okay; you don't have to say thanks."

The two of them are quiet for a minute, standing with their eyes on the ground– Hikaru watches up, "Say-!"

But before he even could say anything further, the limo behind the Hitachiin beeps loudly through the pouring sound of rain.

He turns around, as the chauffer rolls down the window, calling after the heir – "Are you already to leave, young master?!"

A chuckle passes Hikaru's ears, which to his surprise is from the redhead who's standing next to the gate.

"Well then… I suppose we'll see each other soon." Kaoru replies with a smile – the other teen blinks for a moment, nodding slowly the head, slightly dazed.

"Bye." Is told from the other redhead, as he walks through the gate and towards the entrance of his home.

Hikaru though, stares rather amazed at the leaving teen.

He holds onto his mouth, while the chauffer beeps on the horn again.

'_Kami-sama…'_

He stutters in shock, eyes widening - he hasn't expect that.

"What a cute smile…"

* * *

Oh, one thing more, and it's always the same thing;

PLEASE REVIEW! Please do it! XD

I just want to know what you think of the story. :3

I admit that I'm too happy for reviews, it makes a funny feeling inside, and it pulls on the corners of my mouth into a grin. Yup… It's true.

- Kunisaki


	8. School And Work

**Author's note:** Ah, Well... Here's the next chapter!

I guess that I don't really have much to say this time...

Enjoy reading, everyone!

* * *

-- C h a p t e r S e v e n --

-- School and Work --

* * *

_A crash nearby at the halls, some of the servants widened their eyes._

_It sounded like a vase had fallen, as they rushed towards where the sound had rung inside their eardrums._

_As they predicted, there was broken pieces on the floor, scattering at the east wing's main halls._

_What they didn't expect to see was the young Hitachiin. - Yuzuha's son._

_He was… collecting the broken pieces. They looked him, while his back was fronted to them._

"_Young master, what are you-…?" one of them asked, a waitress who had the duty of laundries._

_She was cut off from her speech, when she saw the young red-haired turning his head._

_He was horrified – scared to the dread._

_There were tears falling from his eyes, as he bitted on his lower lip, preventing himself from letting sobbing sounds come out of his mouth._

"_What have you done?" another one of the servants asked, staring in disbelieve at the 6 years old child._

_Hikaru shook his head fiercely._

_- He had been cutting himself._

_They knew it; they knew that there was something about this little kid, which they were not sure of._

_Something was off, and they knew that the young master was in a sort of trouble. If they just could help him…_

"_Haven't we told you to not cut yourself!?" an elder butler grasped his wrist, pulling the sharp object from Hikaru's hand. "This is dangerous, young lad!"_

_Hikaru pulled on the butler's hand, as he tried to get free.Tears were running down now and then._

"_NO! Let me go!" he cried out, screaming at the man with anxiety in his eyes. "Don't do this to me!"_

_The rest of the servant came in rescue, holding the redhead firmly on his place and prevented him to get the rest of the broken vase. A maid tried to stop the bleeding on his palm – his wrist._

_His sobs was heard by their ears, as he mumbled out; "You don't understand… you don't understand it…!"_

"_Everyone, let's clean up this mess before Milady arrives home."_

_And they started to clean up, picking up the pieces._

_Young Hikaru screamed, glaring at the servants with both fear and anger._

"_PUT THEM DOWN! DON'T TOUCH THEM!"_

_They had to take him away, to stop his wound from bleeding._

_Their first priority was to take care of the young master._

_They let the boy scream, as they took him towards the nursing room, the one in corridor XII – east wing halls nr. 5._

* * *

His wide eyes meet the ceiling above, as the redhead just has woken up from another dream.

He rises himself up, almost jumping up from the bed. Kaoru tries to calm down his breathing. His hand runs through his reddish hair, while a deep sigh counters the silence. He shakes his head slightly, pulling off the blanket and rises up from the bed.

"What a nightmare-…" he says tiredly.

Kaoru yawns out, stretching his arms upwards. His hand scratches the back of his neck.

"Eh...?" he rubs his face a bit. "Did I cry?" the teen wonders in puzzlement, feeling water coming out of his eyes.

Suddenly, his cell phone plays out a melody loudly. He blinks at the ringing object. He picks it up, while watching closely at it. A phone number is displaying on the small screen. '_Why is she calling?' _he finds himself wondering, but he shrugs the thought off.

The phone flips open. His voice replies to the call, while his eyes are half open.

"Hello?"

The girl replies to him from the other side of the line. Her voice's sort of worried.

Kaoru grimaces, yawning once again. "Wait. I didn't get that-…"

And so... his eyes widen. The phone call ends, and the teen flings the look over at the ticking clock beside his messy bed.

_-tick.tick.tick-_

"WHAAAT!?" a sound of screaming runs through the open window, as thuds bump around inside the house.

The neighbours' attention gets caught from their garden work. Though, they are often ignoring the loud noises, because they already know what it means from earlier scenes in the morning. _That red-haired boy is getting late again._

Soon, it becomes quiet again, and the neighbours are glancing with their eyebrows raised up to their foreheads.

The front door slams up, and a dashing teen runs out of the house. But then he stops up and turns immediately around. The redhead gets quickly over to the door and locks it. He runs towards the gate, picking the right key and vice visa. The adults are shaking their head, sighing slightly while getting amused.

"He never learns it, that boy." A woman by flowerbeds says, sweat-dropping. "And so on the first day of school."

"But that's just Yasuo's grandson..." a man over at the other side responds, while he walks towards his car, about to take off to his workplace.

The teen is already meters away from his house, dashing over the road as his breath quickens. His heart is beating faster by the running.

"Damn it!" he hisses, while having the bother to get his new school-jacket on.

He sprints over the small bridge with the lake flowing underneath.

Kaoru tightens the grip on his rucksack. He lifts his head up towards the sky, yelling in aggravation.

"WHY IN THE NAME OF KAMI DO I ALWAYS OVERSLEEP!?"

--

**Somewhere else...**

A girl sits by her table with the front sight directed towards the long blackboard, and tables and chairs are surrounding her, standing in straight lines. These seats are identical - except for the pencil 'decorations' on them are different. The brown-haired female is sitting inside her classroom, while she glances at the clock that hangs above the doorframe.

The brunette knits her brows in worry, holding her red cell phone in her palms.

He sounded really tired on the other side of the line. Does Allen even sleep enough?

_'Can he make it in time?'_ she wonders inside herself.

Her classmates are slowly gathering inside of the large room_. _Even though the students are noisy with their endless babbling, the ticking sound from the clock has gotten louder in her ears.

"Hey, Haruhi!" one of her classmates approaches her, causing the girl to turn her brown eyes at the female in front of her.

The girl smiles brightly at Haruhi, "So… you know this 'new student', who's coming today, right?" she asks with her eyes filled with curiosity.

The brown-haired blinks a bit, and then she nods with her head slightly. "Yeah, I do." She replies simply with a smile on.

"Hey! Girls! Haruhi knows the new guy!" and with that, the entire female students in the class are suddenly all around Haruhi.

The brown-haired sweat-drops. Maybe she shouldn't have said that…

"Ne, could you maybe tell us how he is?" one of them asks curiously.

"What kind of guy is he?"

"Is he good looking?" another girl asks, while Haruhi looks at her for a second.

"Well, I suppose you could say that." She replies and scratches her cheek a bit.

And all the girls go 'Oooohhh...!'

"The class is starting, ladies." The home teacher says, walking inside the classroom and lies some books down on the desk.

"Okay everyone! Sit down on your seats!"

The students have listened to what has been told, and they're all getting over to their tables.

"I bet you guys already know today's news." The adult sighs slightly, as the students are looking attentive at him. _'They're only this attentive; when it comes to something they're excited about..._' the home-teacher sweat-drops.

"Today, a transfer student is going to be in our class."

"I hope he looks good..." a girl whispers to her friend before her.

"If Haruhi says he does, then he must be..." another girl says with a finger pointing upwards.

"Yeah, if Haruhi says..." The rest of the females nod in agreement.

The teacher clears his throat, "Anyways! Please take care of him, okay?"

Haruhi turns her head towards the door, and the entire class does as well.

A red-haired boy walks inside, getting straight up to the teacher's desk.

The girls are giggling. The teen can hear them all whispering.

He turns around, facing the large amount of faces staring at him.

The brown-haired female knits her eyebrows. "He's looks awfully tired..." she whispers to herself, as she looks at the transfer student.

"Would you tell us your name, please?" the adult asks politely.

The redhead nods, while holding onto his rucksack. He looks up, opening his mouth up.

"I'm Allen Yuki. It's a pleasure to meet you all." He bows down, while the whispers from each student are getting louder in his ears.

"Alright then, Allen-kun... You can sit on the empty seat before Fujioka-san. You already know her, right?"

Kaoru turns his head towards the brown-head, their gazes meet each other. "Hai." He answers afterwards, and then gets himself over to the seat.

One boy whispers out. "Hey, haven't you guys seen him before?"

"You're right... He looks familiar..."

The redhead sits down immediately, as he sighs heavily in tiredness.

"I thought you would be late." Haruhi whispers to the boy, as she touches his shoulder a bit.

The redhead turns his head, whispering back. "Hey, it's a miracle that I managed to get in the train, before it left."

The girl chuckles, "Oh, really?" she asks in amusement.

The redhead narrows his amber eyes.

* * *

**--Later At Afternoon--**

"I see… So that's been happening recently." The girl points out with her finger, while gazing upwards to the sky above.

Kaoru says nothing. He just walks quietly beside the brown-haired.

Haruhi turns her brown eyes at the redhead. "Sound great! You have always liked to design, right?" she says, while a wide smile appears on her face.

"Well, I guess." The teen beside her responds, keeping his voice low.

That causes the girl to blink her eyes. "You guess? Come on, smile at least!" she starts to laugh, while clapping with her hand on the back of Kaoru's.

"Isn't it something to feel glad about?"

The teen sighs a bit, scratching through his reddish hair from behind. "Yeah, but it's just-… well, I don't know."

Of course he's glad. It's just that… Things have gotten as he hasn't expected them to be. Weird things happen around him, and unfortunately he doesn't have a clue of why. He has never felt this uneasy before, never. He has never expected to actually see _'him'_, and never expected the guy to appear in his life. Though, about the partner he is going to work with, he hasn't told her about him yet.

"Well, then... How was your first day of school?" the brunette takes up the issue, trying to keep the conversation from the awkward atmosphere between them.

Kaoru shrugs his shoulder. "It was fine... like a normal school day." He ends the question rather dull.

Haruhi sweat-drops at the reply she receives. "Really? Wasn't there anything different from the other school?"

The redhead blinks once or twice, before he stops walking.

"The only difference is the class and the teachers." Kaoru replies, while scratching the side of his neck.

He must admit that the people, who go there, are not like those from his old school. He has always gotten into trouble or fights, before he got expelled from that blasted school. But despite about the sociality in the class, he can't help getting the feeling that he would confront those troubles again.

The teen sighs slightly into the air, as the two of them start to walk again.

"These things seem to be hanging on me..." he mumbles under his breath, as his face twitches by annoyance.

Haruhi turns her eyes at him. "Did you say anything?" she asks in wondering.

Kaoru shakes his head at once, sweat-dropping. "No, it's nothing." He smiles awkwardly to her.

Sometimes, he wishes that he wouldn't be grimacing, whenever he tries to smile a bit wider.

The two teens walk on the street, retuning back to home from school. They have also stopped by a supermarket to buy stuff.

When they stop by a traffic light, Kaoru turns his face to the girl beside him. The light shows the sign which tells people to hold on.

"What you going to do with the things you have bought?" the girl asks, while glancing at the white plastic bag in Kaoru's grasp.

"Make dinner, obviously..." he replies shortly.

The brown-haired girl tightens the grasp on her school bag. She looks up to the teen beside her.

"Allen..." Haruhi tries to say at first, but somehow she's holding back her words.

"Hm? What is it, Haruhi?" Kaoru replies to her, before he looks at the girl with patient. He waits for her to say whatever she tries to tell him, as he stands with his hands tucked in his pockets.

"HARUHI!?" a voice shouts after the girl, causing the two teens to stare blankly at each other.

They turn around to see after who it is that has called.

A tall guy runs up towards the brown-haired, not seeing the redhead beside her. That's because of the people, who are surrounding them. The guy could barely see Haruhi, but he could recognize her with one single look.

The girl blinks, "Ah... Suoh-san." Haruhi says, finally realizing who it is. The guy gets up to her, smiling brightly.

"I knew it was yooou-? W-what?!" the blond-haired stops up, when he sees the redhead. He and Kaoru stare at each other with blank faces.

The blond turns towards the brown-haired. "Haruhi, do you know him?"

The girl grimaces a face. "Of course I do. He's my childhood friend."

The guy drops his jaw, "Then, why didn't you tell me you guys knew each other?"

"Who is that?" Kaoru deadpans, glancing at the brunette.

The Suoh cracks like a statue, which has just gotten smashed by a giant mental ball.

"Oh, it's my friend, Suoh Tamaki." The girl replies with a smile. "He helped me with the stuff, so you could transfer into our school."

"Really?" the red-haired teen blinks, turning his head towards the blond-haired.

He stares at him, as Tamaki sits in a corner of a building with his back fronting them.

"He seems... interesting."

"It looks like he knows you... have you met before?"

Kaoru scratches the back of his head. "Now when you say it..."

The teen thinks inside his mind; _'Isn't he the one I bumped into, before I crossed over the tramway the other day?'_

But then he shakes his head. "No... I guess I haven't."

Tamaki grabs after Kaoru's shoulder, causing the redhead to jump a bit by surprise. The blond turns the teen around face to face.

"You're not mad at me, are you?" the blond asks with a frown, while Kaoru raises an eyebrow in confusion.

"I mean, I know you would be ignoring me, but pretend that we don't know each other...?"

"Sorry, sir... but this is the first time we've met." The redhead tells him, leaving the Suoh in bewilderment.

"Then... you must be..." and then something hits the blond guy on the head. "AH! You're that one from the other da-!"

"Come on, Suoh-san. Let's get you back to your house." the brown-haired interrupts, pushing the guy and crosses over the road, because the traffic light has turned green.

Kaoru keeps blinking with his amber eyes at those two.

The redhead shrugs on his shoulder, letting the wondering off and walks over the road before the light turns red again.

"Haruhi! Was there something you wanted to tell me?" the redhead remembers the moment she has wanted to say something to him, before the Suoh had interrupted her.

The girl turns and smiles, shaking her head slightly. "It's nothing!"

"Oh… okay then." Kaoru knits his eyebrows.

"Are you sure that there's nothing?" he asks the brown-haired again, and Haruhi smiles a bit brighter.

"Yeah… I'm sure, Allen."

"If you say so... I guess I'll see you at school next time."

Haruhi nods in understanding, waving with her hand. "Got that! See you later, Allen!"

The red-haired boy lifts his hand as well, and then turns to the right of the street.

--

As the door of the candy store opens, Kaoru stick his head inside of the shop, glancing around the quietly place.

He opens the door fully, walking inside and close behind him.

The sign says the store is closed, but he isn't coming here to help out with the work.

The teen takes off his school-jacket, placing his rucksack on one of the chairs.

"Grandpa, are you there?" he calls out, while heading towards the backdoor.

Behind the door, there's a staircase nearby, which leads up the first floor of the building. The red-haired moves up at the stairs, figuring out that the elder man has to be inside his room. His grandfather lives in this building. The shop is his home after all.

Kaoru reaches the stairs' end, as he gets to the hallway of the first floor.

He moves towards the door at the end of the small hall, letting his palm get a hold on the knob to the elder man's room.

The door opens slightly, while the teen takes a look inside.

He finds his grandfather sitting nearby the window on a rocking-chair, apparently asleep.

Kaoru smiles a bit, getting over to the elderly man and pulls out a blanket to cover the old man's legs.

The redhead drags a chair towards the window, sitting down on it and faces his grandpa.

There's a pause in the quiet room. Kaoru lifts up the plastic bag.

"I bought you some food grandpa, so you wouldn't need to go outside and buy some, whenever you get hungry." He glances inside the bag, and then lies it down on the floor.

The sleepy man breathes slowly, while Kaoru knits his eyebrows together.

The teen looks down on the floor, "I'm... I'm sorry about what happened last time. I shouldn't have yelled at you, when you tried to calm me down."

There's no reply for the redhead, and Kaoru breathes out a deep sigh.

He stands up from the chair, walking over to the door.

"I guess I'll prepare the dinner for you, before I leave."

He closes the door behind him quietly, getting down to the small kitchen nearby.

Upstairs, the elder man clears his throat, while opening his eyes. He looks towards the window beside him, smiling a bit.

"That boy..." he grins to himself, sighing slightly. "He knew that I was awake."

* * *

_As the servants for the Hitachiins, they knew very well on what to do and what to watch over._

_They knew their places. Being in charge of the cleaning and the serving, they did their job too well, too perfect. They were almost too impressive._

_Every single thing, every single duty, they had to make them correctly._

_No dust at the halls corner, everything should be clean and without even a single tiny bit of dust._

_It sounded like they were machines, but they're not – they were human beings, who was on the charge of the Hitachiin estate's serving._

_One thing was to keep the place clean, another one was to watch over one single member of the family._

_Their target: Hitachiin Hikaru._

_Now there wasn't anything bad about this young boy._

_He could behave well, when he was said to._

_Lady Yuzuha, his mother, loved her son the most, loved him at every part of her heart._

_She was an admired lady, with a strong sense of fashion and a loving heart to those she cared for._

_So of course – of course they would look after little Hikaru, it shouldn't be a bother._

_The little boy behaved well, and he was a cute-looking kid._

_It should be an easy task._

"_What happened?!" Mrs. Hitachiin asked worriedly. She was concerned of what had happened, when she was off the work._

_They failed their duty of keeping an eye on her precious boy - they were feeling ashamed of themselves._

"_No, it's okay." She tried to calm down herself, putting the hands to her face. She sighed and looked up, "Where is Hikaru?" she wanted to know._

"_Milady..." one of the servants responded in a low voice. "He... he has locked himself inside his room."_

_The beautiful-looking lady froze a bit. She stood up from the armchair, smiling to the maid._

_"Thanks... I'll go and have a talk with him. Please cancel the meeting at this afternoon for me. It'll probably take a while."_

_The servants bowed down, as the lady of the mansion headed towards her son's bedroom._

_- She knew how long it would take to make her son respond._

_- To make him look up from the corner his sitting at..._

_- To make him get up on his feet..._

_- To make him get over to the door..._

_And to make him lock himself out and get pulled into an embrace._

_She came in front of the door to Hikaru's bedroom._

* * *

"Come in."

The door to Yuzuha's office opens by a red-haired teen.

The lady smiles brightly, "Ara? Good morning Allen-kun!" she rises up from her armchair, greeting the teen.

The two of them shakes hands. "You're a bit early than we had agreed."

"Oh, that's..." Kaoru scratches his neck a bit, "The trains had changed the timetable, but only for today though. It was either meeting up earlier or a lot later."

"Ah, I see..." Mrs. Hitachiin smiles a bit, walking over to her seat again. "You know, I thought that you were my son, when you came inside." She says with a small laughter, sitting down on the chair.

Kaoru nods the head slowly. Well, he has figured out how much he and Hikaru resemble with their looks.

The gorgeous-looking lady sighs slightly, "But then I realized that Hikaru wouldn't possibly get here on time. He's always showing up late."

Someone's knocking on the door, and one of the employers excuses himself of interrupting the little talk Yuzuha and Kaoru had.

"Excuse me, Mrs. President," he bows down politely. Mrs. Hitachiin lifts her hand, letting him talk further.

"The others at the third meeting-room are still waiting for you. I have to tell that they're getting quite impatient."

The lady slaps herself on the face. She has sort of forgotten that. "Oh right, the meeting!"

The lady grabs her briefcase, heading towards the door. She turns around to the redhead. "Please excuse me, Allen-kun. But I have a meeting. Would you mind stay here by yourself?" she smiles in apology.

The teen knits his brows together, and replies; "Well no, that's not a probl-..."

"Well then, Hikaru might get here before I'm back. So until now; let's be patient!" she smiled brightly to the redhead, as Kaoru stared blankly at the lady.

"See you later then, Allen-kun!"

And thus, the door closed as Kaoru started to begin his patient wait for the Hitachiin heir's arrival.

"You got to be kidding me…"

Kaoru glances down on his wrist, watching for the third time on the watch.

He exhausts a heavy sigh, as he scratches through his hair messily.

The red-haired lays his back on the wall, as he glances towards the window nearby his left side.

He has waited for 1 hour, 52 minutes and 36, 5778 seconds… how he exactly knows that... it's also a mystery for him.

Kaoru sits down on the chair again, as he has stoodd up and sat down, changing his position ever so often to keep him awake.

He has looked outside of the oh-so huge window, wondering if he just could get outside on the street to take a walk maybe. At least that could hold him awake.

Kaoru glances on his watch again. 2 hours and 13 seconds of his waiting has passed now.

He grimaces a face – _just how long does he have to wait?_

'_They could at least give me something to deal with, while letting the time pass by.'_

"Oh well… I can't do anything else at the moment." He sighed deeply, as he sits lazily on the soft fabric of the elegant-made chair.

Everything seems to be expensive in here, even the papers are special and made in great quality.

The thought crosses his mind, causing him to narrow his eyes – _how rich could people get?_

He yawns loudly into the air, quite getting the restless part from yesterday on his head.

He runs his hand down at his face, groaning tiredly, "Maybe I shouldn't have stayed up that late."

He takes a glance on the clock on Mrs Hitachiin's desk, shrugging his shoulder.

"I guess taking a nap wouldn't cause any trouble."

--

"Don't be there! Don't be there! Don't be there!"

The teen paces hastily on at the stair, as he has a panicked look on his face.

He prays that his mother is not in her office, ready to come up with whatever punishment he would receive.

Hikaru almost stumbles at the last step, as he accidentally drops his briefcase way down the stairs.

He runs down again, grasping after the briefcase. "Well, that was just great." He states, clapping on it and removes the dust.

He turns the look around at the place. As expected, no one's here at the moment. He looks back on the briefcase.

"You okay?" he whispers to it, still watching carefully if someone passes by.

A reply comes from the briefcase; "Well... NO! You dropped me, remember?!"

Hikaru turns the look towards it, getting annoyed. "Well, at least I asked!"

He sighs in irritation, standing up on his feet again. The halls are kinda empty, at least for Hikaru. He paces down at the most longest corridor and turns around by a corner, walking directly to the end of the hall.

The teen stops then, standing in front of a huge door, which is made of well-qualified wood with a golden sign on, which says 'Hitachiin's Office.'

He shallows the lump in his throat – his mother won't be glad to see him late, especially when he's getting started with the work... and even with a partner. Hikaru guesses that Allen's already inside.

He exhausts a breath, opening up the door and-

"I'm late, I know! Please, don't k-...!" he blinks twice, while just standing there by the doorframe.

No one seems to be here… at all.

The teen relieves a sigh, slightly glad that his mother isn't inside her office, or else Hikaru would get strangled by now. He closes the door behind him, walking towards the desk. He lays the briefcase away from him. The teen gets over to the other side to hang up his coat. He turns around, getting himself towards the armchair and sits down on it.

He guesses that Mrs. President is having a meeting right at the moment, which is a good thing for Hikaru.

He smiles a bit, while looking outside of the window. Then he notices some mumbles around him, and the redhead grimaces a face.

"You're late, Hikaru." the phone on the desk responds to him.

The redhead waves at it carelessly, "I don't feel like talking… I'm kinda tired…" he yawns out, while lifting his hand in front of his open mouth.

Hikaru is indeed tired, most because he does talk a lot every day. Not necessarily humans for that matter, but he holds conversations with everything in this world. Even the wind talks to him, but only in a whisper though. He doesn't complain that he can do this thing like talking to stuff, but sometimes he'll meet some of those, who talk 24 hours-nonstop.

The teen turns around with the chair, until he stops abruptly. He blinks some few times in confusion.

Hikaru swears that he saw something odd before.

He turns the chair around slowly and stops – keeping his eyes on the source of his wonders. He blinks; _'Isn't that-…?'_

He stands up from the armchair, walking slowly towards the couch. His eyes have been caught, when he saw a hand lying lifelessly on the couch's armrest. Said couch is back facing the redhead, so he isn't sure of whom it is, that is lying on the settee. He takes a glance over the back of the couch, looking from above.

He blinks twice, his eyes widening a bit. "Hey, isn't that Al-…"

"_Dang! Is that him?!"_ a voice exclaims loudly, causing the redhead to jump away almost in panic from the figure.

Hikaru looks up, while staring with dreadful eyes. He sees his own face behind the glass before him.

The teen tosses a death-glare at the guy standing in front of him.

"Karu, what the hell?!" he hisses between his gritting teeth, glaring at his too loud-mouthed mirror image. "What are you doing?"

The guy in the mirror looks up to Hikaru, identical eyes lidded. _"Oh, you're here too?"_ he says dryly, totally uninterested.

Hikaru face-slaps himself, running the palm downwards. "I almost forgot there's a mirror in this room too."

The mirror image, called Karu, shrugs on his shoulders, being carefree as ever. _"Whatever master says…"_ he sighs slightly and turns around, back-facing Hikaru.

Hikaru stares at the piece of glass with an annoyed expression. But then he shakes his head, not wanting to make a deal with the mirror guy. He looks down again, looking at the figure that lies on the couch, just slowly breathing in a calm state.

Hikaru crosses his arms, grimacing a little bit. He turns his head over his shoulder, looking at the new designed clock, which is standing by the wall long away from him.

He knits his brows together, as he turns back to the sleeping form. "I should wake him up. I bet mom's heading back now."

Hikaru places his hand on the sleeping teen, or he would have done that. If it isn't for the other redhead to mumble something out, Hikaru would have definitely done it. He gazes at him, finding this difficult. He takes a breath, and then looks seriously at the teen.

He opens his mouth –

"_Kinda cute, don't you think?" _the mirror image says with a wide smile.

One huge sign hits on the top of Hikaru's head, which tells **- Attempt failed –**

The redhead hits his own face on the wall, muttering words out under his breath, which seem to be swears about the Mirror teen.

"_Hey, don't blame me! It's just a pity to wake him up just yet."_ Karu states out in defence, staring at his owner with lidded amber eyes. _"You were thinking that too."_

"Was not!" Hikaru snarles, as he rubs on his forehead with closed eyes. Karu shakes his head, grinning at the obvious teen.

_"Well okay, it's not that I'm your mirror who knows exactly what happens in your mind anyway... Oh wait… I am!"_

"Lock yourself up in a closet, 'cause apparently... you're not helping!" Hikaru retorts back, walking straight toward the huge mirror.

The mirror image blinks. _"How would that help you?" _he asks confused, staring dumbfounded.

Hikaru twitches his face. "Well, it would pretty much as a matter of fact."

Somehow, the two notice how the sleeping teen is turning around on the couch, which causes them both to gaze at him.

The Mirror teen makes a face at his owner. _"You didn't tell me he was this cute."_ He crosses his arms, his upper-arm resting on the glass that is standing in his way to the other side.

"I can't recall that I even said 'cute', when we talked last night." Hikaru states with half-lifted eyes, turning the look towards his other self – the cause of his tiredness.

His mirror is the reason why he's so tired and why he has met up so late.

Karu shrugs a bit. His eyes closed. _"Didn't have to… I knew it already by your thoughts."_

Allen makes a movement while mumbling out lowly, causing Hikaru to quickly hide himself and duck his head behind the couch.

The heir breathes out in relief. "That was close-... Wait, why am I hiding?"

"_Pathetic..."_

"Shut up!" the redhead hisses at his mirror image, pressing his fists down on the couch's backrest, which is a stupid thing to do.

The couch is actually light, and that makes it easier to flip the sofa.

Hikaru widens his eyes, "Oh crap-!" The Hitachiin has forgotten that fact, and the couch falls backwards with him and the sleeping teen.

The red-haired teen closes his eyes shut, as he lands on the floor with his back. And then the sofa lands above them. Luckily, they're not hurt or anything, as the couch makes a triangle space for them.

Hikaru blinks an eye open, "...!" he stares blankly at the sofa above him.

"I thought I was about get squashed..." he breathes out in relief, happy that he doesn't end being a pancake.

"_You're such an idiot!"_ Karu breaks into laughter, while tears are bursting out from his eyes. Hikaru groans in annoyance.

The mirror teen stops his laughter. He smirks at the thought he just had in a split second.

_"So, is he heavy?"_ he asks the redhead in amusement.

"Heavy? What do you-...?" The teen's entire being freezes. He has definitely NOT expected this to happen.

Hikaru gulps nervously, glancing a bit at the strand of hair.

Kaoru mumbles out, grimacing his face with his eyes closed.

He flutters them up, lifting his head up a bit.

"..." The redhead stares blankly at the heir.

Hikaru smiles awkwardly to him. "Eh... Hi?"

...

- THUMP!-

The couch gets shoved away, as Kaoru stands immediately up from the Hitachiin.

He doesn't care which way he goes, just wanting to get away from that-! That-!

His eyes are narrowed by bewilderment. "Why the hell did I wake up to that...?" he murmurs out, while twitching his face.

The red-haired opens the door, heading out of the office and slams the door shut.

Hikaru keeps blinking at the place, where Kaoru has left.

The mirror teen chuckles, as he grins widely. _"Well, at least you got a hug from him."_

The redhead angrily throws a cushion at the large mirror.

* * *

_"Please, open the door up!"_

_He didn't answer, not locking the door up._

_"Hikaru dear, please!"_

_A frown on a kid's face, eyes looking sadly._

_"Hikaru... shouldn't you let her in?"_

_"No." The 6 years old child refused, drying the tears off._

_"But, it's your mom."_

_"I don't want her to get in, Karu."_

_He pulls the blanket over his head, sitting far away from the door at a corner._

_The mirror boy patted the top of Hikaru's head, "What happened?"_

_"The vase fell down."_

_Karu widened the eyes._

_"H-he was broken... and I tried to help him. But I didn't have any glue, tape or anything t-that could help."_

_"..."_

_The redhead cries again, hiding his face with his hands._

_"I couldn't save him... I couldn't-...!"_

_"Hikaru..." the mirror image said sadly._

_He knew how the boy felt, because he felt it too._

_Since vases couldn't cry, Hikaru shredded tears for the broken vase._

* * *

Please review!

:D

_- Kunisaki_


	9. Getting Along

**Author's note: **Greetings again, everyone!

I'll just let you read this chapter instead of rambling. Besides... I'm too tired after writing this.

Please enjoy!

* * *

-- C h a p t e r E i g h t --

-- Getting Along --

* * *

_Yuki Yasuo was worried._

_Ever since the little kid had started in primary school as a new kid, he had been uneasy about what was happening at the large place._

_Did the children learn as they should?_

_Or had they other things to attend at?_

_What was going on over there?_

_True enough, the school was for learning the children, and for the children to learn._

_Even a small kid would know this._

_But even though, he couldn't help but worry over something, that didn't seem to be indifference or a matter that was not to get concerned over._

_- Because it was something to be concerned of._

_Every 5 days of a week, he followed his grandson to the school. _

_He waited at the schoolyard, until he couldn't see the familiar colour of red, which were the locks he could see underneath the boy's cap._

_After that, He would turn around, heading back to the shop, as the school gate closed behind his back._

_And as always when he was selling the candy, he would wonder... and he would get worried._

'_Just two more hours to go, and I'll go and fetch him back…'_

_As the time went by, and customers walking in and out of the store with smiles on, he exhausted a sigh deeply into the air, concerning over the red-haired boy's day at school._

_But why was he always so uneasy, whenever the subject was about his little grandson?_

_Well, it was a simple and easy question to the man._

_The phone ringed on the cash desk, as he was about to sell his new creation of candy._

_Yasuo picked the phone up and answered the call politely._

"_Yes, this is the owner. Is there something I can help them with?"_

_And thus his eyes blinked a few times._

_..._

"_...What?"_

* * *

The school bell rings out, as another day of school has finally ended.

The red-haired teen glances up from his table, as he hears the ringing sound from the school's hall.

"Okay everyone, that's for today. Remember to bring your essays by the next week, got that?!" the home teacher calls out, as the students are getting up from their seats and head out of the classroom. They don't reply back to him, as they are talking with each other without even looking at him.

The man twitches in annoyance, "Well, at least give me a respond instead of ignoring me."

"Sensei." the teacher turns around to face a brown-haired girl, who stands nearby his desk.

"Ah, Fujioka-san." He says dully, looking with lidded eyes. "Nani? You need something?"

The brown-haired girl sighs slightly at the adult, her hand starting to clap on his back lightly. "I told you before. A teacher's not supposed to behave like this."

The adult scratches his neck a bit, sighing heavily in defeat. "Hai, hai... I got that already... But it's usually easier said than done."

Haruhi couldn't help but smile at him, chuckling a bit. "You've just started this year. Just keep it up, okay?"

The teacher looks at her with a bored expression, until a little smile appears on his mouth. "Fine then, I'll try to do my best as always."

The brown-haired smiles brightly, "Now that's what I want to hear! You're making me proud of you!"

'_Proud... proud... proud...'_ - The man gets tear-eyed with happiness by her words.

But the word 'proud' warms his heart up the most.

Haruhi smiled softly to him, giving the teacher his bag and briefcase. "You should be going now, or else you might get late for your appointment."

"Haruhi..." The man dries off the tears, grinning widely and takes his bag and briefcase into his hands. "Right, I'll be going then. Thank you, Haruhi."

"Anytime, sensei." The girl gives him a farewell hug, before the adult walks towards the door and heads out of the room. The teacher stops up, turning the head towards the still sitting and unaware teen. "By the way, Allen-kun." Kaoru, being the unaware student, turns the head up with a puzzled expression. "Yes?" he responds back to the home-teacher.

The man shakes his head a bit, grinning; "How's it going for Yasuo-san lately? Still working in that shop?"

Kaoru nods slightly, scratching his neck a bit. "He's fine, Ryoji-san. And yes, we still have the store to take care of."

"Ah, I thought so..." the man smiles widely – "Say hello to him from me, would you?"

Kaoru blinks a bit. The gaze from the teacher before was quite weird, after his opinion. Is that... sparkles?

"Yeah, of course."

And as the adult walks out of the classroom, he waves with his hand at the two students. "I'll be home earlier today, Haruhi. I promise!"

Haruhi smiles, waving back. "You better keep that promise now!"

Ryoji couldn't help but chuckle, when he hears those words from his daughter. "Allen-kun, eh?" He sighs slightly into the air. His daughter has told him that she wanted to help her childhood friend out, something about transferring school. He hasn't thought that it would be this school, which she has wanted the teen to go on.

Even after such a long time, that girl would still keep helping Yasuo's grandson, no matter what the problem was. Her father wonders why she would put herself to these decisions. He has seen those two together, when they were smaller, and they used to visit and play with each other. He grins a bit, while thinking about how much his daughter smiled, whenever she laughed or played with the boy from the old candy shop.

He guesses he has gotten a bit surprised, when Haruhi has said she wanted to bring him here.

Though, it's kinda obvious that she would.

He scratches his head a bit, sighing deeply out.

"Oh well, as long as it won't go that far, then it's fine."

...

"Your father has been staring strangely at me lately." The redhead says, while he packs down his writing instruments and closes his notebook, after writing the last words down on the lined paper.

"Otousan?" Haruhi replies, sitting down on the teacher's desk. "In what kind of way?"

Kaoru shrugs on his shoulder, answering in an indifferent way. "Beats me. I guess it's just my imagination."

The girl shakes her head like her father has done, before he left. _'He's unbelievable cold sometimes. I bet he doesn't even know it himself...'_

"Are you ready to go?" Haruhi asks with her bright smile.

The redhead nods slightly as a respond.

He turns the head down towards the side of his desk, his hand ready to grab after his bag beside him.

"Eh?" he blinks bewildered, looking around on the floor. "Where's-...?"

Haruhi blinks a bit. "What's the matter?"

The teen looks up at her, "Oh, it's nothing." He replies back, "I just dropped something."

The brown-haired jumps off from the table, her hand taking off her school bag. "Shall I help you-...?"

"No, no! It's fine." Kaoru reassures her, stopping her before she could get over to him. The redhead scratches through his hair, grimacing a face. He turns the head, smiling a little bit to Haruhi, "Don't worry, I'll find it. You can go before me, okay?"

"Are you sure, Allen?" Haruhi asks a bit worriedly, knitting her eyebrows together. She sighs slightly, when the redhead nods at her. "Fine then, be sure to find whatever you're missing, okay?"

"Of course." Kaoru smiles back to her, which she finds rather rare to see him like that, smiling that is.

"Now hurry up before you miss the bus."

"Hai, hai. See you tomorrow then." The brown-head walks out of the classroom.

The redhead waves to her, getting the same goodbye-treatment from her. Once he feels sure of Haruhi's no longer in the halls, the teen stand up from his chair, as his eyes turns to every place inside the room. He bows down and search after the thing he's missing. "As I expected." He sighs deeply, seeing nothing lying on the floor other than a bit of dust.

"This is perfect..." he mumbles out - a perfect timing to lose his rucksack, and he had just started in this school.

He only has the chance to stay here in this place, if he works hard enough for it.

And with all those homework inside that bag, things couldn't get any better than this.

Kaoru groans in frustration, while looking around underneath the tables and chairs. Someone must have stolen it without him being aware of it. The teen makes an annoyance expression, while standing up from the floor and claps his trousers a bit. "I guess _some_ things don't change."

Knowing that experiencing the same thing at this school, like the older one, makes him quite annoyed. He hasn't thought that this would start to happen again. So much for starting over. Kaoru wouldn't like to have Haruhi knowing that his bag is stolen by someone from their class. - This is something he has predicted. The person could only be one of their classmates, since Kaoru never leaves the classroom until afternoon. Hence, it's easy to figure it out.

Also, he doesn't want his childhood friend to get worried because of him. And if he knows her well, she's that kind of type that would help no matter what. The teen sighs slightly, knitting the brows; it's just a wondering for the redhead why he's the one she would help the most.

"This will take a long time..."

Kaoru shakes his head a bit, running out of the classroom and down the halls.

"I have to find it. Today's homework is inside of that bag."

He searches through the first few rooms he passes by, both above and underneath the furniture. He continues on with the searching, but there are still no signs of his rucksack. The red-haired sighs deeply, standing up from the floor. "Not in this room either." After room number 12, most people would get tired and just give up.

Kaoru moves towards the exit of the room, "Still some more places to go."

- Unlike the others, he's known to be very obstinate, just like what his grandfather always tells him.

"...!" Kaoru stops his tracking, before he could come up to the door frame.

"Are? You're still here?" a student asks surprised, followed by another boy behind him.

The redhead stands quiet, examining the other teen in front of him.

The student smiles in a polite manner, "Your name's Yuki-kun, right?" he reaches his palm towards the teen.

Kaoru glances at the hand, and then looks up at the boy, "I... do I know you?" he asks with a question mark above his head.

The boy's head falls downcast, dropping his hand. He watches up at the redhead again, smiling with a sweat-drop.

"I'm the one who sits next to you in the class."

Kaoru stands with blinking eyes, until his mind clicks. "Ah, soka... You're Akira-kun, right?"

"That's Arai…" the other teen fall down on his knees with his hands on the floor, his head hanging downcast in gloom.

"I... I'm sorry, Arai-kun." Kaoru sweat-drops, his palms in front of him.

"There's no use in getting depressed, Arai." The other student behind the gloomy boy tells with an amused grin. "Cheer up, okay?"

Arai turns the look up at his friend, "Who told I was depressed?" he asks with knitted brows, standing up on his feet again.

"I'm Suzushima Toru, the one who's sitting next to Fujioka-san." The teen greets the redhead, smiling friendly.

Kaoru couldn't help but grimace a bit; people here are sure friendly towards him. "Can I be excused? I'm in a bit of a hurry."

"Ah, of course! You're that Yuki-kun!" Arai smacks his own forehead in realization, grinning slightly. "Allen from the candy store, right?"

"How do you know me?" the red-haired blanks for a second, puzzlement causes him to raise his eyebrow.

Arai scratches his head a bit, smiling brightly. "My sister uses to buy at that shop; she keeps talking about how pretty the store-owner's grandson is."

Kaoru stares blankly at the brown-haired teen. _'...Pretty?'_

Arai smiles slightly, scratching his cheek a bit. "I knew I have seen you before, only for once though. You probably don't remember, but I was buying an ice-cream for her."

The other student sighs deeply, sweat-dropping a bit. "Here he goes again..."

"I saw you inside the stockroom on that day. You looked like you were busy with the stocks and-..."

"Hora... Can't you see he's in a hurry?" Toru claps his hand on the other teen's shoulder, causing Arai to turn his head to his friend. "Gees... Keep talking like that, and we'll also get late."

"Oh, right! Gomen, Yuki-kun!" the brown-head laughs awkwardly with the hand scratching his neck, letting the redhead pass through the doorframe.

"Eh, it's okay." Kaoru reassures his classmate.

He walks out of the room and passes between the two boys, "I have to go now, but thanks for the talk."

"Ah, anytime! And you're welcome!" Arai grins brightly.

Toru waves with a smile, as the redhead starts to run down the hall.

--

**-Hours after the small conversation with Arai & Toru-**

The redhead walks out through the huge doors, moving down at the stairs to the courtyard's ground.

"I guess it's not in the school." Kaoru says with a sigh, his head hanging downcast.

The bag is not even in the courtyard; ergo, it's not in the school's ground.

The red-haired walks towards the bicycle rack, pulling out the key to his bike, which is chained to his belt. As the lock has gotten unlocked, Kaoru pulls the bike out towards the school's gate. The next he does is putting on his scarf, taking his black coat on and buttons it. Just how should he find it now? If the bag's not in the school, then where could it have gone off to? Someone must have something against him, but it wouldn't surprise the teen very much.

Kaoru gets on his bicycle, starting to ride down towards the street. He turns in a corner of a road, as he rides further down the road and gets nearby the large bridge, where his childhood friend would always stand and watch the river flowing underneath. Though, it makes him wonder why the bridge is special for her sometimes. He has often seen her there, when they were smaller.

He glances towards where he and Haruhi had lunch the other day. Apparently, the bridge is placed nearby his new school.

He bets that the brown-haired girl eats her lunch on this bridge almost every day.

The teen blinks for a second, stopping half-way on the bridge. What he sees in the river makes him grimace a face - both in relief and annoyance.

"Guess I've found it."

He rides towards the end of the bridge, jumping off from his bike and takes off the black coat. He gets to the river and lands on the small part of land, moving over to the thing that has caught his eyes. Before he runs down to the water, Kaoru folds up his sleeves, and the ends of his pants up to his knees – just to make sure his clothes won't get wet. Then he takes off his shoes and socks, moving down towards the water. The red-haired picks up the wet object, which is actually the school bag he has been searching for through the whole school.

The water inside gets poured out, while Kaoru narrows his eyes.

"Now that's just great…" - the redhead states out in a murmur, holding his school bag upside down.

Apparently, the bag's empty - which means everything that were inside is now somewhere in the river, scattered from each other.

He breathes out deeply, twitching the corner of his eye. "Seems like I can't finish my homework now."

"Hey!" a voice calls out, causing the teen to turn the head up to the bridge.

"You got a lot of guts to play hooky from work!"

"Hikaru…" Kaoru blinks a few times at the guy, seeing a limo holding behind the other redhead.

_'Why does he always show up wherever I go?'_ the redhead finds himself thinking.

"Thanks for letting me doing all the work!" Hikaru yells to him, running down from the bridge, and to where Kaoru's bicycle is lying.

His eyes blink for a second, when he sees what Kaoru's holding in his hands.

"What are you doing with your bag?" the heir asks confused.

"I dropped my bag into this river." Kaoru simply replies, throwing the bag towards the land nearby Hikaru. He dives his palms into the water again, while explaining how the things are for him. "My stuff fell out of it, so I have to find them all. It might take for a while."

Hikaru stands quietly, watching the redhead moving around in the river. He scratches his cheek a bit, glancing towards the side.

The Hitachiin sighs deeply, mumbling under his breath; _"Why am I doing this…?"_

"Got it." Kaoru says, while taking up his English textbook.

He looks at the wet literature, flipping through the pages.

"How am I going to explain this to the inspector…?" he knits his eyebrows worriedly.

-Splash!-

"Eh?" The splash causes him to turn his head over his shoulder by bewilderment.

He widens his amber eyes, turning fully towards the other red-haired. "H-hey, it's fine! You don't have to get yourself wet! The weather's too cold!" Kaoru runs to the heir, who is apparently sticking his palms into the river, and without having his overcoat on.

"Wait a second-!" Kaoru calls after the other teen, but he stops his feet once Hikaru has taking up his math book.

The heir gazes on the book for a moment. Something feels different, as Kaoru watches him from a short distance.

"Who did it?" Hikaru asks quietly, the other redhead blinks twice at him.

The Hitachiin turns the head upwards with his eyes closed, "Ah… soka. Some students did it."

Hikaru opens his eyes again, turning his head to Kaoru with a smile. "That's awful, Allen… you can't lie to me."

"Eh?" Kaoru drops his English book down in the water again, the book slipping off from his loose hands. _'Did he just… talk with something?'_

"Hora, that's rude against the book!" the Hitachiin quickly runs towards the redhead, picking up the book that Kaoru has dropped.

"Come on! Let's find you other stuff, so we get off from this river." Hikaru states determined, smiling his wide grin.

"Besides, it's faster with two people searching rather than one alone, right?"

The other teen slowly nods his head, "Right…"

"Then let's hurry up!" the heir laughs a bit, already beginning to search in the river.

* * *

"_Mr. Yuki?"_

_The elder man watched up, "Yes?" he stood up from the chair, which he had been sitting on in worry._

_The man eyes widened slightly, when he saw his grandson; his clothes messed and a band-aid plastered on his forehead._

"_Allen…" Yasuo squatted in front of the little boy, ruffled the red locks with his hand._

_The palm was huge on the kid's head._

"_What happened?"_

_Allen watched unaffectedly at his grandfather, shrugging his shoulder a bit._

"_I fell." He answered indifferently._

"_Yuki-kun got into a fight with the other kids." The lady beside the redhead replied to the elder man's question._

_Yasuo widened his eyes._

"_One of them clams that Yuki-kun was the one to start."_

"_And you're sure they're telling the truth?" Yasuo stood up again, his calm expression never left his face._

"_Grandpa," the little red-haired tugged on the man's jacket._

_"He's right. I started the fight."_

_Yasuo blinked in disbelieve, "Allen… do you mean it?"_

_He placed his hands on the kid's shoulders._

_The boy nodded slightly._

_The elder man sighed deeply; "I see…"_

_He really hoped that Allen didn't tell the truth this time._

"_May we be excused?"_

_The lady nodded._

_She had a rather cold personality, he thought to himself._

"_Let's go, Allen."_

_He grabbed after the boy's hand, and took both of them towards the exit of the school._

_They set off on foot to the station and left the building._

* * *

"Is it here?" the heir quirks an eyebrow, the water going up to his elbows.

"Did you find it?!" the other red-haired calls out, running up towards Hikaru.

"No…oh, wait-… Ah! YES!" Hikaru strikes his hand up to the sky, a ring of keys in his grasp.

The other teen's face shines up - "YATTA!" both of the teens shout with joy and big smiles, their palms grasping after each other as they laugh.

"Eh?" But then Kaoru blinks at the intertwined hands, and so does Hikaru as well.

Both of them let go immediately one another, turning their heads towards the side.

Hikaru sweat-drops, his face grimacing in puzzlement. '_What was that all about?'_ he wonders inside himself.

"Hikaru." The heir turns the look to the redhead. Kaoru smiles slightly, "Thanks for helping out."

The Hitachiin blinks with widen eyes, and then throws the look downwards to the side.

"Iiya, well-…" he begins to scratch his cheek a bit, chuckling quietly. Hikaru turn the head up again, smiling brightly as he replies; "You're welcome."

"Young master!" the chauffeur yells, waving his hand to the redhead. "Milady is on the phone! She's asking for you!"

"Kaasan?!" Hikaru blinks for a second, and then quickly gets up from the river.

The driver moves towards the edge of the road, reaching the cell phone to the teen's hand.

The heir grabs the phone, while removing the bangs from his left eye with the other hand.

"Hello, mom? ...Well, yes I did find him… Yeah, he's right beside-...!" Hikaru suddenly sneezes, his palm covering up his nose and mouth.

"_What was-?! Hikaru, are you ill?!"_ the two red-haired teens could hear Hikaru's motherm as she yells through the phone in worry.

Hikaru put the cell phone back to his ear; "Wha-? No, mom! It was just the air… Yeah, the air was bothering my nose, stop exaggerating… Listen, we'll be going then, okay? …Right. Bye mom." The teen breathes out heavily, hanging up the phone. Right after, he sneezes once again, while giving the cell phone to the chauffeur.

"Are you sure that you're fine?" Kaoru asks with narrowed eyes.

The heir waves a bit, nodding his head slightly. "Yeah, of course-…!" and he sneezes for the third time.

The other redhead sighs deeply, while both of them gets up to the road with help from the driver.

"Thanks." Kaoru says, as the chauffeur drags him up.

"You're welcome, Mr. Yuki." The man smiles, while Hikaru in the background squeezes on his shirt's end. "I must say, it's rare that young master would drive the whole way, just to find someone."

"Really?" Kaoru raises his eyebrow in question.

The man nods his head, holding on to his chauffeur-cap. "Even though, I have a day off today, he wanted to go to your school and find you there."

"Ooi! Just what are you saying to him?!" the Hitachiin heir yells in annoyance, his head turning over his shoulder.

The chauffeur keeps his smile on his face, talking further with the other teen. "Maa, I'm glad to drive young master around, wherever he wants to go to. I sure get a lot to see and to deal with."

"Hai?" Kaoru sweat-drops a bit, not sure if the adult is just being polite, or just wants to be rude to Hikaru.

"Come on! Let's get off from this bridge!" Hikaru yells out, as suddenly has gotten over to the limo before the two others.

The driver turns quickly towards the bridge, running up to the car. "Ah, wait young master! Not the driver's seat! You're not allowed by Milady to yet-!"

The other redhead couldn't help but smile. He gets surprised that seeing the chauffeur trying to get Hikaru out off the car made him chuckle. It gets more surprising that he starts to laugh, when he sees the heir kicking with his free leg, and his hands holding firmly on the steering-wheel.

"Are?" Hikaru moves the corner of his mouth upwards, as soon he hears the sound of Kaoru's laughter. "That's rare to hear you laughing."

Kaoru stop the laughing almost at once; "Is that so?" he finds himself asking back.

As the Hitachiin grins, the chauffeur pulls out the redhead, when the master gets unaware of the adult.

"So, would young master please sit in the passenger's seat?" the driver stares down at him, causing the redhead to gulp a bit.

"O-of course…" Hikaru laughs nervously.

As the all of them gets inside the limo, and have taken Kaoru's bicycle and such, the chauffeur starts up the car and drives off from the large bridge.

The Hitachiin keeps sneezing his nose off, which worries Kaoru a bit.

"I guess you shouldn't have jumped into the water after all. Now, that you've catch a cold."

The other shakes his head, "I'm not sick, I'm practically fine."

"What about the sneezing then?"

"Like I said; it's just the air."

Kaoru narrows his eyes, sweat-dropping by the teen's stubbornness.

"Ah, soka!" Hikaru looks at Kaoru, wearing his usual wide grin on his mouth. The limo drives down the road, as he speaks; "I was wondering if I could see your house?"

The other teen stares blankly at him, raising a brow. "You want to see my house?"

The heir nods, still grinning largely. "I got interested on the other day, when we drove you back home."

"But haven't you seen his house? There's no need to see it second time then, young master." The driver teases the teen with a bright smile, which makes Hikaru to twitch his face in irritation.

"Hora! Didn't you just say that you would gladly drive me to wherever I want to go?" the rich teen says, while sticking his head up to the front seat beside the driver.

"True. But in that condition you're in, it's only the best thing to drive you home again and get yourself some rest." The man by the wheel replies in the same way as before.

"Who are you? My babysitter?" Hikaru narrows his eyes, smiling strangely and dangerously at the man.

"I'm just your personal-chauffeur, who has the obligatory of driving you home, whenever young master gets ill from the outside of the mansion."

"You-!" the Hitachiin is about to rant back at the driver, but it never comes because the limo suddenly stops.

The adult turns his head to the other redhead, "Is it fine here, Mr. Yuki?"

"Yeah, thanks." Kaoru says, smiling back as he opens the door and moves out of the car.

Hikaru widens his eyes. Another sneeze before he sticks out his head through the open window.

"Wait! We're not at you house yet. Are you fine with just that?"

"It's fine, Hikaru. Also, I have my bike with me." The redhead reassures him with a smile.

The heir gazes for a minute, until he pouts slightly. "Fine… though I don't know why I would agree with that…"

The teen takes out his bike and his school bag. His attention gets caught as he hears the sneezing teen in the background.

Kaoru sighs slightly, moving towards the car again.

"Here," he takes off his orange scarf, putting it around Hikaru's neck, before the red-haired could even protest. "You need it more than I do."

Hikaru freezes for a second, until he frowns slightly again. "Allen, I can't take this…"

"Be sure to give it back, and don't get me wrong." Kaoru says firmly, causing the other boy to blink.

"But…"

The teen sighs tiredly, "Hikaru… please go home and get some rest, okay?"

It's Hikaru's turn the breathe out a sigh, as he nods his head slowly in defeat.

"Fine."

"See you later then, alright?" Kaoru ties the scarf as the last thing, before he takes his bike and the rucksack.

The red-haired boy jumps on the bicycle and rides off, before the Hitachiin heir could say goodbye to him.

"Young master?" the chauffeur asks, finding it odd that his master is unusually quiet.

Hikaru turns his head inside the limo again, holding onto the scarf.

"Let's get back to the mansion." He states quietly.

"Understood."

Once the limo proceeds the driving, the teen sniffs the scent from the orange fabric, feeling the nice warmth around his neck.

Hikaru smiles softly into the scarf, "Different… just like him."

* * *

_Once Yasuo got back to the candy store with his grandson, the elder man closed the door quietly behind him._

_He sighed deeply, turning the head towards the small kid._

_Allen was taking his jacket, letting it lie on one of the café-tables while he took off his cap as the next thing._

_The grandfather walked up to him, squatting before the little boy._

_"Are you fine?" he asked worriedly, ruffling the red hair._

_"I'm doing well, grandpa." The kid answered with a straight face, his eyes blinking a few times._

_"That's good to hear." Yasuo smiled softly in relief._

_…_

_"What happened…?"_

_Allen looked down on his feet, fumbling with his scarf a bit. "I… I fell. Didn't I say that?"_

_The man smiles again, "Yes, you did… but why did you fall?"_

_"…"_

_"It's okay if you don't want to tell me."_

_The little redhead tightened his palms on the scarf._

_"The… the other kids bumped into me."_

_Yasuo's eyes widened in disbelief._

_"They… pushed you?"_

_Allen bit on his lips, shutting his eyes tightly._

_"Why wouldn't you say it to me?"_

_"Is… is grandpa mad at me?" the elder man was surprised, when he heard the boy's quiet question._

_"No, Allen…" he frowned sadly, his hands placed on Allen's small shoulders._

_"I would never get mad at you. I don't a reason to be, and I'll never get one."_

_The redhead launched himself to his grandfather, sniffing quietly with his head hiding in the old man's jacket._

_"There, there…" Yasuo patted the kid's head, embracing the little child with a smile._

_"Let's talk about it later, shall we?"_

_Allen nodded slowly._

_The elderly man stood up again, taking the boy's small hand._

_He grinned to his grandson. "Now, I made something new this morning. Wanna try it?"_

_The redhead smiled widely, drying of the small drops of tears._

_"Hai!"_

* * *

Now that you have read it, would you please review?

:3

- Kunisaki


	10. Sweets?

Author's note: GAAAH!! I'm really sorry for not posting a long time! D: It's been for...!

...

Argh, Sheesh! I can't even remember-! DX

Either way, enjoy the chapter, and sorry again! I mean, REALLY sorry.

* * *

-- Chapter Nine --

--- Sweets? ---

* * *

He notices that the sky seems more blue than usual.

Although, the year's in its winter period, the sky remains its bright blue colour. It hasn't snowed yet, but it's getting colder and colder outside... even inside is starting to get chilly.

He sighs soundlessly.

It's not the weather he's troubled with. But rather...

He squeezes the orange fabric a bit. Hikaru closes his eyes for a moment, his other hand tapping on the notebook with a pen.

The orange scarf he has borrowed... He knits his brows together, his expression turning into a worried look. _'What's up with me?_' He wonders in confusion.

Hikaru's starting to get nervous about it, perhaps more than nervous.

He couldn't stop those twitches on his face. And most of all, he couldn't stop thinking about...

'_Why...?'_ he thinks.

'_Why do I want to see...?'_

"Alright, class! The answer to the next question is...?"

The teacher looks up from her notes, pausing her writing. Her eyes behind her glasses glance around the classroom.

"Yes Kuragano-san, will you please answer?"

While Kuragano Momoka stands up and answers correctly to the question, some of the other students couldn't help but glances a bit towards the third window. It isn't particularly the window, which they're looking at. It's more about who sits on his seat beside the third window.

"Excellent... now I want you all to turn up to page 108. Read the text and answers the questions. It'll be your homework for next week." The teacher takes a look on her wrist, which her watch is around.

"You have now-..."

-Riiiiinng!!-

"...free." –and thus the class has ended.

The students pack their stuff down and heads out of the room.

"Have a nice weekend." The teacher says, before leaving the classroom. Soon, there's no students but one left inside.

A students, who is about to go outside, glances over his shoulder. He notices that there's still one, who's sitting on his place quietly.

'_Didn't he hear the bell?'_ the boy grimaces a face.

"Ooi, Hikaru-kun? You know the day is over, right?"

The redhead keeps staring at the huge window beside him. His mind seems to not be in present, when his classmate tries to call him from his daydreaming state. Hikaru doesn't move from his position at all.

The student sighs. "Yare yare..." he scratches his head a bit, before he moves closer to the sitting red-haired. He prepares himself, shaking his shoulders and clearing his throat.

The boy takes a deep breath. He slams his fist on the redhead's desk.

"EARTH TO HIKARU-KUN!"

"ARGH!"

That causes Hikaru to jump out of his absentness, and he jumps literary off from his seat and hits the floor, due to the shock.

"Ouch!" the redhead lands hardly on his bottom.

He blinks at the classmate with huge eyes, "What was that all about!?"

The boy chuckles in amusement. "Gomen, gomen! But I had to get you out of your daydreaming." He reaches out his hand in front of Hikaru. The redhead takes a moment, before he reaches his own hand towards his classmate's.

The boy lifts him up to his feet again.

He glances at the red-haired before he says:

"You know... You've been quite off lately."

Hikaru blinks with a wondering look. "Huh?"

The boy scratches his neck. "I mean... You seem to be distracted by something, and it isn't just now, but for a while..."

"Oh. Well..." Hikaru glances down to the side.

"And you haven't been very much at school lately."

The classmate knits his brows, while saying this.

"It's kinda different, when you aren't there to make every day fun."

Hikaru grimaces at him, before gives the classmate a little hit on his arm.

"Ow!" the boy jumps a bit, while easing the hit spot.

"What's that for?"

The redhead grins. "Every day can be fun."

The classmate blinks at him with a puzzled look. Hikaru grabs his school bag and the orange scarf, walking pass him with a slight smile on his face. He grabs the door handle and opens the door. The teen turns his head over his shoulder, smiling.

"You just have to make it funny."

The classmate scratches his neck. "Well... if you say so, I guess." He grins a bit, walking towards the door. Hikaru lets the boy pass first and walks outside of the room after him. He closes the door right after, still wearing his smile.

"So, do you have time to hang out?" The male asks, while the two teens walks towards the stairs. "I and the others are planning a weekend trip to London. What do you say?"

Hikaru knits his brows together, his palm scratching the side of his neck.

"Well... I'm not sure if I can. I have a lot of things to look after."

"And what's that supposed to be?" the teen beside the redhead quirks his eyebrow.

He widens his eyes a bit.

"No way... Did you mother put you on some work again?"

The redhead shrugs his shoulder. "It seems so..."

"If that's how it is..." The male sighs heavily, his head downcast.

"Can't help it, I guess..." He straightens his back, taking a deep breath in.

"Well! Done is done! I'll see you next week then." The male smiles, waving his palm while walking. "Have a great weekend!" and then he runs.

"Ja ne!" the redhead manages to say, before the boy disappears by the corner of the hall. Hikaru opens his bag to place the scarf inside.

Once he closes the school bag again, a voice yells after him.

"The one I've searched for!"

The redhead blinks a bit, turning around to see the owner of the voice.

"I've waited for you to finish your class." A blond guy says with a bright grin, his eyes lively as a child. Hikaru raises his eyebrow. "Why the sudden visit?" he asks the familiar blond. Said blond widens his grin. "I came to pick you up. I wanna take you to somewhere." It's none other than Suoh Tamaki.

"And that certain place may be where?" the redhead states with suspiciousness.

The blond grabs after Hikaru's wrist.

"In the city of course! It's a nice little place, very old-fashioned and the owner lives there! I'm sure you would love it!"

"Huh?!" the redhead almost trips over his feet, when the taller guy tugs him on the wrist. "H-hey! Milord, wait a second!" But the blond head does not listen and continues to drag Hikaru in the hallway. "Let go of me, would you?!"

"The shop has a special sale in this week, so we better not miss it." Tamaki keeps smiling, his eyes looking forward and he does not let go of the red-haired teen. Hikaru narrows his amber eyes in annoyance. The tall blond looks over his shoulder.

"Hora, don't make such a piggy face. Trust me, you'll enjoy it." Tamaki smiles warmly with closed eyes, his face pure.

Hikaru let his eyelids fall half over his ambers. _'A shop, huh?'_

He grimaces his face, but gives in. "Sure... why not?"

The tall blond brightens up. "Great! Then what are we waiting for?!" Tamaki starts to jump, while dragging on the redhead. Hikaru is starting to feel his wrist hurting.

He sighs deeply with closed eyes, sweatdropping.

"Stop leaping, Milord."

* * *

"Thanks for coming!"

The lady smiles kindly back at the redhead. She waves her hand, before passing through the front door. Kaoru taps on the cash register, putting the cash into the register. He smiles a bit to the next customer.

"Yes? Four packets? Right away, sir."

He turns towards the elder man behind him.

"Grandpa, I'll go to the stockroom for a moment."

His grandfather looks up. He nods with a grin on his face. "Got it, my boy."

Kaoru goes straight towards the backdoor and inside the storeroom. Yasuo gives a quick glance at his grandson, seeing the redhead disappear through the door. The elderly man places his palm on his chin. The red-haired teen gets back from the stockroom with four small boxes, wrapped in different kinds of pastel shaded gift paper.

"That'll be... 4500 yen, sir."

"Right... here you go, young man."

Yasuo smiles slightly. The man leaves with a thank you, walking out of the store. The elder man looks at his grandson.

"Hi, what can I help you with?"

Yasuo glances around. His candy store seems to be a bit crowded by female customers and a few of males. Today is different in some kind of way. They are getting more customers than usual, and the largest amount of them are girls.

The old man wonders...

'_Doesn't Allen seem a bit... cheerful?'_ He glances back at the young redhead.

"Ah, you're welcome." Kaoru replies to the girl with a slight smile. He hands the ordered box of chocolate to her. "Thanks for coming!" the teen cheerfully says, while the girl waves back with a smile and walks out through the door to the street. The redhead continues.

"Who's next? Yes, how may I help you?"

Things seem to be running pretty smooth today...

"Greetings, Yuki-san!" Yasuo turns the look to his left. The elder man smiles in surprise. "Raymond! Good to see you!" he says with laughter.

"Are you taking a day off?"

Raymond smiles back.

"More a couple of days... I'm planning to see my family in England."

"Taking a break from the whistle and the sound of trains?"

The man nods his head.

"Is that so?" Yasuo grins brightly. "Well, could I help you with something? Would you like to buy some snacks for the way back?"

"Actually... I was wondering if I could get one your famous special boxes, if you may please?" the conductor asks with one hand beside his face, as if it is a secret he delivers to old Yasuo. "Well, if there are any left of course. You seem to be quite busy right at the moment."

The elderly man chuckles a bit.

"Of course my friend, I'll go and check in the stockings." He tells the foreign conductor and heads towards the stocking room.

It doesn't go too long before the elderly man gets back with a fine wrapped box.

"Here you go! The usual kind, right?" Yasuo smiles brightly, handing the box of chocolate to the conductor.

"Thanks." Raymond gives his thanks, taking the box.

"The money's inside this briefcase. Take care!" and then the foreigner takes his leave, waving to old Mr. Yuki with a large smile.

"Say hello to the family from us!" Yasuo shouts back with a chuckle.

The door closes with the doorbell ringing. Kaoru glances a bit outside, seeing Raymond walking down the streets.

Later on at midday, the two candy-workers could take their break.

"There was sure many today, don't you think?"

"I guess so..." Kaoru replies, before he takes a sip from his porcelain cup filled with hot tea. Yasuo blinks a bit. He wonders if his grandson has possibly realized... The reason to the increase of customers, is because of his good mood in the morning.

Or perhaps... there's more in it.

The old man smiles to the red-haired teen.

"Perhaps you should call it a day and take home for a rest, Allen. I know you have been busy with school, so you can relax in this weekend."

Kaoru blinks a bit, before he smiles slightly.

"Nope. I'm staying here." The teen says in a determined tone.

"Besides, you're having a special sale today, which brings more customers. You did see what happened in the morning."

The grandfather scratches his chin, knitting his brows.

"Well, you got a point there..."

"Grandpa... what was Raymond doing here?"

Yasuo looks up at the redhead. "Oh, you didn't hear?"

Kaoru shakes his head slightly.

The elderly man scratches his chin a bit. "Well... he came, because he wanted to buy some chocolate." He starts to say first, taking a piece of food from his o-bento box. He chews and swallows before continuing.

"He's taking a couple of days free from the station, so he could see how it was going for his wife and children."

The teen knits his brows.

"But why doesn't he live with his family? Or why don't they move to here instead?" Kaoru asks wondering, seeing no sense in it.

The grandfather chuckles slightly. He smiles to his grandson.

"Well, see it in this way... It doesn't matter how far away, or how long it'll take for him to see those he dears the most, as long as he knows he can see them at any time."

Kaoru couldn't help but raise his eyebrow.

Yasuo laughs a bit.

"Shortly said; distance and time doesn't matter that much. As long as the dearest are still alive, you can always see them whenever you want to."

"That doesn't explain why his family and he himself don't live together..." Kaoru points out blankly, due to what his grandfather has told.

"It doesn't?" Yasuo questions back, giving the redhead the same look.

The teen sighs slightly. He stands up and makes a turn.

"I'll get the giant lollipops in the storeroom..." he says with a sweatdrop, before heading towards the stockroom.

"Sure, my boy." The old man answers, while he scratches his chin.

The redhead walks into the storeroom, his palm grabbing the doorknob and closes the door after him.

For some reason, the elderly man couldn't help but smile in amusement.

The bell-door rings, as a tall male opens the door with a bright smile.

"Jijii-san, Konichiwa!" the male greets gladly, when he sees the elderly man.

Yasuo blinks in surprise by the greeting.

He fixes his glasses, his grey eyes narrowing.

"Well, if it isn't the small boy, who used to come by." The old man sends a bright grin. He straightens his back a bit.

"How's it going, lad?"

"Oh well, it's going great." Tamaki says with a smile, while he scratches his neck a bit.

Tamaki laughs a bit, until he blinks his violet eyes.

"Oh right, jijii-san. I have brought a friend with me."

The blond-haired steps towards the side.

"A friend?" the old man blinks. Yasuo widens his eyes.

"You..." he gapes by the sight.

"This is my childhood friend." Tamaki introduces with his refreshing smile.

"Hi...?" the redhead waves a bit, smiling with a sweat-drop.

Yasuo couldn't believe it.

The door to the storeroom opens, interrupting the awkward silence.

The store owner's grandson asks, "Grandpa, where do you want the loli-..."

Kaoru stops up with a shocked expression, his eyes widening.

"-pops?"

"...Allen?" the other redhead blinks.

"...Eh?" Tamaki throws the look from side to side.

"Are...? Are? Eh?" The blond rubs his eyes.

He looks up again to see the two redheads.

...

"EEEEHH?!"

* * *

Kaoru keeps his eyes half open, while sipping from his cup of green tea.

'_This is not happening...'_ the redhead states in his mind.

His amber eyes glance between his grandfather and the two guests, who're sitting by the table with him. His grandfather's talking a lot with the blond guy. It seems that they really know each other very much.

"So that's why..." the old man chuckles, while Tamaki takes a sip from his cup.

"I really wanted to eat some taiyakis at your place, jijii-san."

The blond places down his cup on the saucer.

"Sorry that I haven't come by for a long time."

"What are you apologizing for?" Yasuo grins largely.

"It's no wonder why you haven't visited me, now that you have told you story."

"Still, I could have bought a few from you." Tamaki says while scratching his cheek.

"I see you've also gotten taller than me now, Tamaki."

Yasuo measures the difference between their heights with his palm.

And then his palm went downwards.

"When I last time saw you, you weren't much taller than this."

Tamaki laughs a bit. "I was only a kid, jijii-san."

"And we have known each other since then." The elderly says with a bright smile.

Kaoru blinks at his grandfather, placing his own cup down on the saucer, which belongs to the teacup.

"You have?" the redhead asks with a bit of curiousness.

The elderly man looks at his grandson.

He smiles warmly.

"You can bet I do. Tamaki used to visit me and buy taiyakis and all other deserts, which he meant was for common folk."

"But..."

The red-haired teen knits his eyebrows.

"How come I haven't known about him then?"

Yasuo sends a genuine grin. His palm ruffles Kaoru's hair.

"You haven't started to work here, not in that age, my boy."

The old man chuckles, while Kaoru tries to set his hair back to how it has been before. The grandfather waves to the teen to get closer. Kaoru raises his eyebrow, but does as told. Yasuo starts to whisper with his hand close to his cheek.

"Either way, Allen... Who is that boy in front of you?"

Kaoru makes a short glance at the teen before him. His grandfather is talking about the other redhead, who has yet said anything to the conversation. Hikaru's staring with lidded eyes on the blue teacup, which he holds in his two palms.

"Oh, that's my partner from the job Mrs. Hitachiin gave me." Kaoru explains in a whisper. "He's her son."

"Aha..." the elderly man rubs his chin thoughtfully. "Interesting..."

"Why did you ask?" the redhead wants to know.

"Oh, it's just surprising how much you two look like each other."

That makes the teen quiver his eyebrow.

"So, young man," Yasuo exclaims to catch the other redhead's attention.

Hikaru throws the look at him, his expression shows a bit of shock and surprise.

"You haven't said anything yet. What's your given name, my boy?"

The redhead blinks.

"Well..." he places down his cup of tea. "I'm Hikaru... I believe you have talked with my mother on the phone the other day."

"Yes, that's quite right..." Yasuo smiles slightly back.

"It wondered me why she called for such information about my grandson." He chuckles a bit, taking a sip of tea. He states while looking at both redheads.

"But now I see the problem."

Both Hikaru and Kaoru glance at each other.

Both of them blink with weird looks.

"I was surprised too." Tamaki sighs into the air, while sweatdropping.

"You could have told me about your new partner, Hikaru."

"It wasn't your concern either way." Hikaru states indifferently with lidded ambers.

Tamaki could feel the twitch on his face.

Yasuo couldn't help but laugh a bit. "How's your mother doing then?"

"She's doing fine." the redhead answers politely, sending a sinister look to the blond behind the bright smile. Said blond gets an arrow stuck on his back.

"However... she's on a business trip in this weekend."

"I see..." the elder man nods with interest. "Say, what about you?"

"Pardon?" Hikaru raises his eyebrow in question.

Yasuo chuckles a bit. "I was wondering if you were also doing some work. Your family seem to be busy, since your mother's a fashion designer, and you're the heir to her brand."

"Oh... no, not quite." The red-haired teen responds with his head a bit lowered. He glazes at the liquid in his cup.

"But I was planning to do a few things in this weekend."

"So your servants take care of you."

Hikaru smiles slightly, while seeing his mirror image in the cup.

"Usually, yes. But not this time..."

Kaoru glances at the redhead, before taking a sip of tea.

"What do you mean by 'not this time'?" Yasuo blinks puzzled at the teen.

The heir places down his cup, his smile remaining on his face. "They're all having a weekend off from work. Some of them are even visiting their family or friends, so it's just me in the mansion."

"So you're alone..." the elderly man mumbles with knitted brows.

"But it's okay." Hikaru smiles cheerfully. "I can take care of myself."

When Kaoru hears that, he too couldn't stop knitting his brows in worry. The way it's said by Hikaru, Yuzuha Hitachiin's son... it sounds like something he himself would say to not worry the others.

The blond gazes at his childhood friend... and then at Yasuo's grandson.

He places his hand on his chin.

"Come to think of it..."

Kaoru notices his glaze. He turns the look at the blond with a blank face.

"Excuse me?" he blinks a few times.

"I knew it!" Tamaki stands straight up from his seat, his index finger pointing at the teen. "You're that boy Haruhi was with on the other day!"

"..." the others stare strangely at the blond.

Kaoru narrows his eyes. "And?"

"...!" Tamaki leaves his mouth open, until he sits down again with his mouth shut. He mumbles with a slight blush.

"Nothing... I just wanted to confirm it."

"Have you already met?" the grandfather asks surprised.

"Well yeah, kinda..." the blond scratches his neck with a sweatdrop.

"Although, his respond was dry."

There's a short moment of silence, before Yasuo starts to laugh.

"Really?" he chuckles in amusement, while Kaoru raises his eyebrow at him.

"What's so funny?" the redhead asks his grandfather.

The elderly man grins.

"Tamaki, my boy!" he exclaims with a chuckle, his palm claps on the blond head's back. He stands up from his chair.

"Since it's been so long why don't you look around this place? I'm sure Fujioka-san would be glad to see you again."

The mention of the brown-haired girl makes Tamaki warm on his cheeks.

"Come on, let's go and see her! I'll show you the way." the elder man lifts the blond-haired guy up from his chair, starting to shove him towards the exit of the shop.

"W-wait! I'm not ready to see her yet!"

Tamaki stumbles over his own words, the nervousness rising inside.

"What is there to be afraid of? You've known each other since kindergarten!"

"But-! Jijii-san!" Tamaki complains, while the elderly man leads him towards where Haruhi would be.

Soon, the two redheads won't be able to see them on the streets any longer.

"..." Kaoru knits his eyebrows, his amber eyes narrowing.

'_What in the world was that all about?'_

"Your grandfather seems quite cheerful."

"What?" he turns the look back at Hikaru, who seems to be smiling with his chin resting on his palms.

"Oh. Yeah, he's always like that." Kaoru answers, taking a sip.

"That's great."

Kaoru looks up at the Hitachiin in front of him.

Hikaru smiles with his eyelids falling half-over his ambers.

"No wonder why many people like him."

Kaoru smiles slightly too, while moving his head a bit lower again. "Yeah..."

"..." Hikaru gazes at the teen in front of him, his smile wearing off. Without him noticing, his hand starts to slowly reach after the redhead's.

"Say, Allen..."

"Hmm?" Kaoru looks back at Hikaru with his eyes blinking, causing the heir to swallow. "What?"

"I... I was just..." Hikaru says with a slight nervous, before he gets attacked from behind.

"I CAN'T DO IT!!" he could hear the cries of a certain blond-haired guy, and he could hear it loud and clearly.

"WHAT WOULD SHE SAY?! WHAT IF SHE GOT IRRITATED OF ME?!"

'_You're already irritating me, and that's fine...?' _Hikaru mentally tells.

"What should I do-?!"

"Tamaki..." The red-haired teen smiles to the blond.

Tamaki blinks with teardrops.

"Get off from me." Hikaru murderously says with his innocent smile dancing on his lips.

"IIIHHH!!" the blond guy quickly backs off, his face getting entirely pale.

"Well, I did try." The old man sighs deeply. He too has come back from the little walk. Kaoru couldn't help but grimace at his grandfather with lidded eyes.

Yasuo's tired look changes quickly into a cheerful one. He grins to his grandson at first. But then...

"Hikaru-kun?" The old man asks.

Hikaru turns his attention to him, leaving Suoh Tamaki in his own despair at the corner of woe.

"Yes?"

"Would you..." the old candy-store owner clear his throat.

"**Would you like to stay at Allen's place this weekend?"**

...

"Hah?" The redhead blinks with widen eyes.

Yasuo is just smiling back at them.

"Y-you don't mean that-...?"

Hikaru's not the only one who's shocked and confusion.

A certain other redhead wears the same expression as him.

* * *

"_Come on!" the boy called with laughter, his legs bringing him closer to the green field._

"_Wait a minute-!" another kid shouted, as his tried to reach the fast runner._

_The taller boy crawled up on the hill. He turned back to the other boy, reaching his hand out for him. The other child's hair was reddish. The tall kid grabbed the redhead's hand and pulled him up. The red-haired boy got up on the hill with help from the blond kid. The blond chuckled, as he ran on the grass. "Catch me if you can!"_

"_Hora, Tamaki!" the redhead shouted in annoyance, his breath becoming heavy. He tried to speed up, but he wasn't as fast as Tamaki. He couldn't be faster._

_That boy's energy was abnormal!_

_How could a kid like him have so much energy, even after running all this way?_

_The redhead was breathing heavily after the air. He could feel how his legs were slowing down, due to the tiredness._

'_This is nuts...!' the boy thought. He tried to hold himself up with his small palms on his knees. When he looked up, he couldn't see the blond boy anywhere._

"_Where did he...?" Hikaru blinked with knitted brows._

_And then suddenly..._

"_Got cha'!" he was lifted up from the ground by two arms._

"_H-hey! Let go!" the redhead complained with widen eyes. Tamaki had caught him from behind. He carried the red-haired boy the last way towards the field._

"_I said let go, moron!" Hikaru fought back by wriggling his arms and legs, but Tamaki still held him. The redhead made a grumpy face, which didn't fit for a boy like him._

_His amber eyes narrowed in annoyance._

"_As you wish..." Tamaki sighed deeply, and dropped the redhead on the grass. Hikaru winced, when he hit the ground._

"_You did it on purpose." The small redhead muttered, while he rubbed the hurt place._

_Tamaki sat down in front of Hikaru with his legs under him._

"_You could have just asked nicely." His smile was of pure amusement. Hikaru grimaced in almost disgust._

'_Too bright for a simple smile...' he thought. The boy stated with lidded eyes._

"_If people got caught like that, it's obvious they would shout."_

_The blond boy laughed._

"_Always having a counter-back to remarks..."_

_Tamaki placed his palm on the ground, feeling the grass between his fingers._

_Hikaru let himself lay on the grass. The boy sighed in tiresome._

"_I'm worn up...! How can you run like that and still have energy left?"_

_Tamaki made a wondering face, once he turned the look towards the blue sky._

"_...Ohtori-kun asked the same question." The blond boy said with his palm on his chin, chuckling a bit to himself._

"_Ha?" Hikaru raised his eyebrow._

_The blond seemed always cheerful, he was always enjoying himself. Hikaru wondered the reason of why._

"_Say, Tamaki... Don't you ever get bored?"_

"_Me?" the blond pointed at himself. He was still smiling. "Nope."_

_Hikaru quivered his brow. "Why?"_

_Tamaki grinned then._

"_Because I make my every days fun."_

* * *

Got nothing else to say... Please review...?

- Kunisaki


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